Gold and Silver
by Quill of Molliemon
Summary: AU, crossover, follows several months after "Freaky Foxes". Naruto journeys to Demon Country and finds that the fact that it has no gyms is the least of his problems... Read, review, and enjoy!
1. Part I

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Pokémon. If I did, I'd have a lot of money…but I don't. So don't bother suing, you won't get anything out of it.

**Notes:** (Crossover, could be a crack!fic if you want) Here there be Naruto characters and Pokémon monsters! This is a _short story_ which takes place after "Freaky Foxes" (the summer after…however many months that is).

I hope that you enjoy it!

* * *

**Gold and Silver**

_Part I_

Naruto scowled down at the map he'd picked up at the border and tried to figure out the distance scale and where exactly he was in relation to where he wanted to be.

_Shouldn't I have gotten to Trinity City by now?_ He turned the map one way and tilted his head the other way. _Or…am I not reading this right?_

Visiting Demon Country had seemed like a good idea when he'd been pondering on where to go next. His mother had given him a list of places she'd been, things she'd done, and places and things she'd _wished_ to have gotten to—and Demon Country had been right at the top of the "didn't go there but wanted to" list. But once he'd crossed the border into the lesser country and started looking for things to do, he found it…lacking.

There were no gyms.

At all.

There were contest halls which hosted contests, super contests, and battle contests, and stadiums that hosted pokéthlons.

But no gyms.

Upon discovering this bit of information, he'd been ready to turn around and scamper right back across the border. Even if Demon Country had had some gyms their badges wouldn't have counted towards his total for entry in high-level Fire Country tournaments, but the experience gained would've been something. No gyms meant no experience, which meant there was no point in coming to this country.

However, before he'd gotten to turning around and leaving, he'd heard about some really awesome festival that was going to be held in Trinity City in a couple weeks. It was some kind of historical celebration of some local event that had evolved into what sounded like one of the biggest parties in all of Demon Country. It sounded like it was worth his while to go there and check it out, so his plans of ditching Demon Country were scrapped in favor of heading to Trinity City.

_…I don't like this map,_ Naruto decided as he folded it back up and shoved it in his bag. _Whenever I get to Trinity City, I should get a new one._

The boy sighed and started to walk down the trail, hoping it was really taking him where he wanted to go, but stopped when he realized that Bolt wasn't following him. Instead, the pikachu was sitting on the ground, desperately scratching himself. Concerned, Naruto picked the electrical rodent up and examined him while the monster kept on scratching.

"Hey what's wrong—what's this?"

Brushing back the pikachu's short, fine, yellow fur with his thumb, he found pink, irritated skin that was covered in tiny purple spots.

_Oh…that doesn't look good._

Holding his pikachu in his arms, Naruto jogged on down the trail, intent on finding the closest pokémon center as soon as possible.

* * *

Naruto fidgeted anxiously at the service counter of the pokémon center that he'd found shortly after finally reaching Trinity City. It had been nerve-wracking to wait his turn while Bolt kept on scratching. And even now that the pikachu was getting treatment, it was hard to relax.

_Please don't let it be serious, please don't let it be serious, please…_

"All done!" the rosy-haired attendant chirped as she returned to the counter and set Bolt down…and the pikachu was still scratching. "There was really nothing to worry about; just a strong reaction to a pokérus infection. Next in line?"

"A pokérus infection?" Naruto repeated, not budging from his spot at the counter. _That sounds like something to worry about to me._

"It's a harmless condition, most pokémon that contract it suffer no side-effects at all," the attendant replied impatiently. "Once it passes, your pikachu will never catch it again. Next in line, please?"

Naruto scowled and left the counter with Bolt, and headed for the bank of phones along the far wall. He was not impressed by counter attendant; she seemed like a ditz to him. He sought an opinion that he could trust.

"C'mon, pick up," the boy muttered while Bolt kept on desperately itching himself.

_"Professor Sarutobi's lab, how can—"_ Ebisu paused on the video screen, adjusted his shades, and grimaced slightly. _"What do you want?"_

"I got a question for the Old Man," Naruto said hurriedly. "It'll only take a second, I swear!"

Ebisu eyed him for a moment before stiffly nodding. _"I will see if he's available."_

Naruto went back to anxious fidgeting while the video screen showed him a very dull view of a blank laboratory wall. A few minutes later, the old man settled himself in front of the video phone with his pipe in hand. The old professor looked to be in a good mood and his kind smile relaxed Naruto a bit.

_"Good afternoon Naruto! What's your question?"_

"Hey, Old Man," Naruto waved. "Is pokérus dangerous? The lady at the counter said it isn't, but—" He lifted Bolt into view so that the professor could see the pikachu's itchy misery. "—it's making Bolt so itchy."

_"Hmm…"_ The professor tapped his pipe thoughtfully. _"That's unusual; pokémon who have contracted pokérus normally suffer no side-effects, and those few who do experience nothing severe."_

"Is there some medicine I can give him to help him get over this faster?" Naruto asked.

_"No,"_ the man replied with a shake of his head. _"Because pokérus normally has no negative effect on pokémon, no company or research group has ever bothered to experiment with treatments for it. And once the infection has run its course, pokémon become immune to it and will never contract it again."_

Naruto's shoulders slumped. "So…there's nothing I can do for him?"

_"Well, you could send him here and we could try a few things,"_ the professor suggested. _"And gather data on him for possible use in future cases."_

The boy hesitated before making up his mind. "Okay."

He put the pikachu back in its capsule, put that in the transport tray underneath the video phone, and sent it off with a sigh.

_"…Alright, pokémon received,"_ the old man said. _"Now which pokémon would you like me to send back?"_

Naruto rubbed at the back of his head thoughtfully. "Well…"

It started out with a little shiver that buzzed up the soles of his feet. Then the floor seemed to buck and heave, knocking him to the floor. There were shouts and panicked screams and the sounds of falling things and breaking glass. The lights flickered before going out entirely, leaving the pokémon center in almost total darkness.

And then, just as suddenly, it all stopped.

Naruto sat on the floor where he'd fallen and blinked owlishly in the dark.

_Holy crap! That was an earthquake!_


	2. Part II

**Gold and Silver**

_Part II_

Experiencing an actual earthquake was a first for Naruto. Sure, he'd felt _earthquake_ the pokémon move (and _magnitude_, which was similar), but while that shaking was intense, it was very localized. All of Trinity City and beyond had felt this thing.

The damage actually didn't seem to be all that bad. There were broken windows, cracked sidewalks, lots and lots of stuff knocked off shelves, power and phone outages, and a couple of buildings that had developed a few cracks and slight leans, but that was really it. No mass destruction, no fires, no huge fissures in the ground, and no deaths. From what he could tell, the festival, which was only a couple days away from happening, was still on with no delays or reschedules planned.

The only real inconvenience was the power and phone outages. Most of the city was without power, or was running on emergency generators. And only real emergencies could call on the few phone lines that hadn't been disrupted.

So Naruto couldn't finish his phone call with the professor and round out his team.

With the festival so close, it wasn't likely that any major fixes would be attempted until after the big party. That left Naruto with not much to do but kill time until the festival that he'd come for came around. After a little asking around at the pokémon center, he found a nice-sounding place to go.

Friendly Fields was a pokémon-friendly park close to the edge of the city. Battles were strictly prohibited there. It was a naturally-landscaped piece of land where people could enjoy the outdoors with their pokémon friends. In fact, having at least one pokémon was required to gain entry to the fenced-in park, and if that pokémon proved to be ill-mannered and aggressive, the pokémon and the human were kicked out.

Naruto had heard of similar parks in other places, but never visited any of them before. Some of them had a list of what pokémon were allowed—usually small, cute, popular things like pikachu. With Bolt gone, his best bet for getting in (assuming there was a limited list) seemed to be Shiitake as shroomish for some reason were considered cute.

Of course when he got there he found out that there were no strict limits on what pokémon were allowed in the park—only very large pokémon like gyarados, snorlax, onix, and wailord were forbidden as even very well-mannered ones could be unintentionally destructive. So Naruto had swapped Shiitake for Demon not long after entering the park to avoid the stress of trying to keep the shroomish from picking fights with other park patrons. With its aggressive nature and strong fighting spirit he could see why Ino hadn't thought twice about offering the mushroom pokémon to him as a bribe to borrow Demon for a few contests in Tea Country. He couldn't imagine the scowling shroomish happily performing in any contest, not even a battle contest where the second round consisted of timed pokémon battles.

"So…" Naruto muttered as he walked down one of the park paths with Demon while skimming some tourist pamphlets he'd picked up from a little kiosk just outside the pokémon center. "Trinity City: the city of three temples." He wrinkled his nose. "…The Summer Victory Festival—celebrating the ancient victory over the…demons of the underworld? Right." _So long as the party is cool and there's good food—eh?_

The path that he'd been following ended at a black wrought-iron fence. The fence encircled what looked like a bottomless pit—a vertical cave that was so deep that even when he cautiously leaned over the fence he couldn't make out the bottom. Glancing around, he saw that the fence was decked with various warnings (in multiple languages) and then there was a plaque.

"The Gateway," he read, squinting a bit at the slightly corroded metal. "This opening leads directly to the Underworld—the realm of vicious man-eating demons which in ancient times once threatened the small villages that would one day become Trinity City. Only through the efforts of the Great Three was the land saved…" He glanced over at the fenced-in pit and snorted. "Yeah. Hey Demon, what do you…"

When he looked down at where his vulpix had been sitting, he found an empty patch of grass.

"Uh, Demon?"

He scanned the surrounding trees and bushes and looked all around the large, roughly circular opening of The Gateway, but failed to find the golden fox.

"Aw, man," Naruto muttered, widening his search. "I thought we were totally past the whole running-away-when-I'm-not-looking thing." _He still can't be pissed off at me for lending him to Ino…can he?_

After another ten minutes of increasingly frantic searching, Naruto stepped it up a bit by calling upon Sandy to scout from the air. While he combed through the bushes, the vibrava peeked through the breaks in the trees. But still, for what felt like a disturbingly long time, they found nothing.

"Demon! Hey, where'd you go?!" He paused to peek under a rock (too worried to realize that there was no way that Demon was hiding under there) and sighed when he didn't find anything but a few assorted worms and insects. "Hey—"

Sandy popped through the tree branches, almost banging into his head.

"Did you find him?"

The vibrava buzzed and growled excitedly and darted off.

"Hey, slow down!" Naruto yelped, almost tripping as he hurried to follow.

The monster dragonfly led him through a dense clump of trees and bushes to a small secluded pond. Sitting on a rock by the water was a golden vulpix with orange tails, looking perfectly serene and unbothered while staring into the water. Naruto took a moment to catch his breath and glower while Sandy landed lightly on his shoulders.

"_You!_" he growled, angrily jabbing a finger at the little fox. "You scared me! Quit running off like that!"

The golden fox flinched and stared up at him as if confused.

"Whatever," Naruto muttered and plopped down on the ground beside the vulpix. "Play dumb, I don't care," he groused and pulled out the little tourist pamphlets again to do more skimming.

Sandy hopped off his shoulders and went about scolding the vulpix for causing such trouble. The oddly-colored fox didn't seem right—when someone argued with Demon, Demon would argue back. But Naruto ignored the two pokémon in favor of focusing on the little informational pamphlets.

"Two different museums…boring. Those restaurants looks cool…but they're too expensive. Maybe I should go to the city center next, that water fountain looks neat. Hmm…hey—"

His vibrava frantically dug at his pants pocket, distracting the boy from his reading. Before he could shoo her off, her insect-like limbs managed to claw his pokédex from his pocket and it was nearly fumbled into the pond. After Naruto saved the electronic device from taking the plunge, Sandy urgently gestured at the vulpix.

"What?" Naruto frowned as he flipped his pokédex open to make sure no dirt had gotten into it. "What about him?"

The pokédex pinged, indicating that it had detected a nearby wild pokémon and had completed its scan.

"Eh?"

Naruto glanced down at the small screen and his jaw dropped.

_What?!_

* * *

Demon was kind of bored. The park was pretty and everything, but there didn't seem to be much to do other than walk around and look at flowers and trees. Whisker Face seemed very interested in a giant, deep hole in the ground. Demon didn't care for it at all; it smelled cold and dank and it made his fur prickle.

So, while Whisker Face fascinated himself with the hole, Demon sniffed around at the surrounding trees and bushes in search of something genuinely interesting. He smelled dead leaves, flowers, trees, and other things too faint to determine. And then he thought he heard someone moving through the bushes.

_:Hello?:_

There was no answer, but he thought he saw a flash of yellow in some gap in the leaves.

Intrigued, Demon left Whisker Face reading some metal sign and went to see what the yellow thing was. He slipped through the wall of leaves, but found no trace beyond some disturbed fallen leaves. When he took a good sniff, he thought he smelled the scent of another vulpix.

_Hmm…_

As his presence hadn't been missed yet, he trotted off in pursuit. The trail led him farther and farther away from the hole in the ground in nearly a straight line. He got close enough to his target to see a shadowy shape with curly tails trotting through the undergrowth up ahead before being stopped short.

_"Demon!"_ the boy's distant voice called._ "Where are you?!"_

The golden vulpix hesitated and glanced back. He could ignore the boy and keep going. Or he could go back.

He should go back.

"Kogane!" a much closer, feminine voice called. "There you are! We've been looking all over for you!"

And then delicate girl hands picked him up and deposited him in a wicker basket lined with soft red velvet. He caught glimpses of broad white sleeves, long hair that was such a pale blonde it looked white, and the pale violet form of an espeon. Then the basket was picked up and carried off in an entirely new direction before he could gather himself to protest or escape.

"I wish you would stop running off like that, Kogane," the mystery girl complained. "Now we're going to be late and Inari-sama will be so displeased with us."

_:For shame, Kogane,:_ the espeon chided. _:You know better than to behave this way.:_

Demon blinked as he sat in the basket and was carried away.

_…Who's Kogane?_

* * *

Naruto stumbled to his feet, pointed at the vulpix, and sputtered until finally getting some words out.

"You're not Demon! You're a _girl_!"


	3. Part III

**Gold and Silver**

_Part III_

When Demon found himself at the front gate of the park, he decided this ridiculousness had gone on more than long enough. If he left the park with the strange pale-haired girl and her espeon, how would Whisker Face find him? And really, how could he be mistaken for this "Kogane"? There was no other vulpix that looked like he did, after all.

"Good afternoon, Miss Shion," one of the lady attendants at the front gate said with a polite bow.

"Has Kogane-sama been giving you trouble again?" the other asked.

"Good afternoon," the girl replied with a terse nod as she hurried past. "Yes, she has, and now we're late four our appointment."

_Kogane-__**sama**__?_ Demon thought. _And…they think I'm this "Kogane" too?_

"We are going to be so late," the Shion girl muttered as she hurried out of the park. "Esper, please summon Naty."

_:Yes, Shion.:_ the espeon replied and its eyes glowed blue briefly.

_POP!_

A small green feathered ball abruptly appeared in the air just in front of them. It was a small bird pokémon with tiny wings and enormous eyes. Demon stared at it and wondered what the heck it was.

_:I am here, my lady!:_

"Naty, please _teleport_ us to the gates of the Fire Temple," the girl instructed.

_:Yes, my lady!:_

The bird landed on her head—

_POP!_

The scenery instantly and completely changed from the edge of the park and the edge of the city to what looked like the inside of the park, except there was an ancient stone wall with a large gate flanked by arcanine statues. Beyond the gate was a winding path that went through a large landscaped yard and ended at a massive red and white building like nothing Demon had ever seen before. But he really couldn't appreciate the sight as the _teleportation_ had left him dizzy and queasy.

_Urgh, no wonder Al usually lands on his head after he __**teleports**__…_

The Shion girl hurried down the path—not running, but walking as quickly as she could—with her espeon and weird bird following her. Trying to blink through the dizziness, Demon spied a small herd of ponyta led by a rapidash roaming near the path, munching on the neatly-trimmed grass. And then they reach the massive red double-doors of the building.

Beyond the doors was a strange other world. The ceilings were high, the halls were wide, and red and white was everywhere. The humans he saw in there wore odd costumes—red pants that were so baggy they looked like skirts, white shirts with voluminous sleeves, odd black hats on the men and intricate hairstyles on the women, and the older and more important the human looked the more jewelry and bells and other ornamentation they possessed. And then there were the pokémon.

Fire pokémon of all kinds were everywhere, and outnumbered the humans at least two to one. Demon saw growlithe, houndour, magby and magmar, charmander and charmeleon, cyndaquil and quilava, torchic and combusken, chimchar and monferno, slugma, flareon, numel, and vulpix. Further in the massive, maze-like building he spied a few psychic pokémon, but the vast majority were fire-type pokémon.

_What is this place?_

And then they came to a room. It was filled with comfy red cushions and decorated with red wall-hangings. At the back of the room was a raised dais with a life-like ninetales sculpture upon it. There were dishes of fried tofu on rice with some fragrant sauce set on the white marble floor and nearly twenty vulpix lounging there and feasting upon the food.

"Inari-sama," the Shion girl said respectfully as she set the basket with Demon in it on the floor and bowed deeply. "I apologize for our lateness; it took longer than I had anticipated to find Kogane."

Demon paid no mind to the girl and whoever she was talking to. His gaze was fixed on an untouched dish of the food. It smelled good, he was hungry, and since no one seemed to be eating it, maybe he ought to—

The sculpture of the ninetales suddenly moved, revealing that it wasn't a statue at all but a living fox. It moved smoothly and gracefully down a few steps from its raised position, causing all the vulpix to stop eating and sit at respectful attention. The ninetales came right up to the girl and nodded slightly to her.

_:Thank you, Shion-chan,:_ the feminine fox said. She turned her head to stare down at Demon with a disapproving expression. _:As for you…:_ The ninetales hesitated. _:You…:_ She tentatively sniffed at him before rearing her head back in shock. _:You are not Kogane!:_

Demon blinked as he hunkered down in the basket, slightly intimidated by the superior fox. _:Yeah, I know.:_

_ :Not…Kogane?:_ the espeon squeaked in disbelief.

_:Not Kogane?:_ the strange little green bird echoed.

"What…what's wrong, Inari-sama?" the Shion girl asked nervously.

_:You!:_ the ninetales growled down at him. _:Where is Kogane? Where is my daughter?!:_

_…Daughter?!_

* * *

Naruto sagged in defeat as he trudged towards the park gates. Two whole hours he'd combed the Friendly Fields for Demon with Shadow's, Sandy's, and even Shiitake's help (Typhoon would've helped too if he wasn't one of the restricted species), but they'd had no success. Wherever Demon was, he wasn't in the park anymore and there was no point in wasting time looking for him in a place where he definitely wasn't.

Sandy glided along beside him, limp and gloomy. Shadow slunk along on his other side, tail hanging low at his failure to find the fox they all sought. Shiitake also seemed rather down, but it was hard to tell as his face never really showed any expression beyond the classic shroomish scowl.

Bizarrely, the mystery female vulpix followed him too. For a wild pokémon she seemed completely comfortable around him when he would've expected her to be wary. She had observed his desperate searching with mild interest and tagged along.

It was just so weird.

_Maybe…she's not really wild. I heard some rich people buy rare pokémon and keep them loose all the time—they never keep them in pokéballs or take them to pokémon centers so they don't get micro-chipped. …Yeah, maybe some rich lady came here with her, they got separated, and she took Demon instead!_

That seemed plausible enough. It explained why a "wild" pokémon was in a place where there weren't supposed any wild pokémon. And it was a nicer scenario than someone kidnapping Demon and leaving a decoy in his place.

Feeling a bit more hopeful, Naruto approached the two lady attendants that waited at the entrance/exit that would let him back out into Trinity City. The nice ladies were all friendly smiles at first. But as he reached them, they frowned slightly.

"Young man," one scolded, "you may only have one creature out with you at a time."

"I'm sorry," he hastily apologized. "I just lost that one and needed some help finding—"

"Kogane-sama…again?" the second attendant asked in confusion, staring right at the golden-yellow vulpix. "Misa, do you think she could've run away from the Fire Temple again so soon?"

_Kogane?_ Naruto thought, eying the suddenly nervous vulpix. _That means "gold" doesn't it?_

"She must have," the first attendant said, taking notice of the shiny vulpix. "There is no other vulpix in the world that looks like Kogane-sama."

"I found her while I was searching," Naruto told them. "She belongs at the Fire Temple? How do I get there?"

"It's very easy," the second attendant smiled and gestured to a nearby intersection outside of the park. "You just go to Ruby Lane and follow it to Fire Road and then you just follow that to the temple."

"Okay thanks!" he grinned and turned to the clump of four monsters. "Guys, let's…go?"

The vulpix, which had been so calm before, looked about ready to bolt. If she ran, he'd have to chase her and drag her back, and he'd already wasted enough time. So he wasn't going to let her run.

"Shadow, don't let her leave."

The umbreon immediately positioned himself to block her escape and his red eyes started glow in a _mean look_—

Shiitake—always eager to participate in a fight, no matter how small—interrupted, spraying the female fox with a blast of sleep-inducing _spore_. The golden vulpix sniffed, sneezed, and collapsed in an unconscious heap on the grass. Naruto grimaced and quickly returned the shroomish to its ball, just in case the mushroom monster kept attacking under the mistaken impression that he wanted to captured the other shiny vulpix and add her to his team.

"That wasn't what I was going for…but I guess this works too," Naruto sighed as he picked the napping fox up, careful not to wake her. When he turned back around to leave, he found the lady attendants looking at him with appalled expressions. "Uh…Fire Temple…that way…okay-thanks-bye!"

He jogged off in the direction he'd been shown with Shadow and Sandy following faithfully behind him.

_Geeze, what were those looks for?_ he wondered as he hurried to this Fire Temple. _They looked at me like I battered her into fainted instead of just making her nap…_

* * *

"Are you sure this is such a good idea? I mean—what if there are aftershocks?"

Hiro sighed and glanced back towards his two human companions. "It is a risk, but we won't be down here too long—we're just taking a quick peek to see if the quake caused any damage and then we'll leave right away."

He and his two friends were dedicated cavers, united in their love of exploring the deep and dark places of the world. They had come to Demon Country on the ultimate expedition: exploring and mapping the fabled Underworld cave system. It had long been known to man, but never explored due to superstition. After years of petitioning, Hiro and his friends had finally gained government approval and now had the great honor of being the first people to formally study the myth-shrouded caves.

But the recent earthquake had put a crimp in their plans. Until they were certain that it had fully past and there would be no aftershocks, they couldn't risk going in very deep. So, after checking their chosen entry point into the cave system, they would have to wait for at least a month for the danger to pass before they could do some serious spelunking.

Originally they'd planned to enter the caves through the well-know Gateway—the vertical opening tucked away in the heart of the Friendly Fields. However, when they'd rappelled down to the bottom of it the previous week, they found that the tunnels that led away from the cave mouth were all blocked by fallen rocks, probably from some ancient earthquake that had occurred long before the current geological troubles. So they'd been forced to find a smaller cave an hour outside of the city that would connect them to the Underworld.

And now this entry point was in danger of closing, too.

_It would be just our luck if this earthquake collapsed all the entrances to the cave system,_ he thought grimly as he adjusted the lamp mounted on his helmet. _We finally get the green light to come down here and we can't! If only we had the means and the permission to excavate the main opening back in The Gateway…_

Vibrations buzzed up the soles of their shoes just as they reached the first chamber that they had discovered, freezing them in their tracks.

"Aftershock?!" Taichi squeaked fearfully.

"Feels like it," Ikuto gulped.

And then just as quickly it was over.

"That wasn't too bad," Hiro sighed, relieved. "But this is far enough, let's go back—"

There was a flurry of high-pitched squeaks and the sounds of hundreds of flapping wings as a cloud of zubats and smaller ordinary bats exploded into the airy cave chamber from other tunnels. The dense flock swirled around the chamber for a moment before funneling down the tunnel that led to the outside. The three cavers stood frozen, shaking off the willies brought on by the swarm of bats and bat monsters.

"That's a bad sign," Taichi muttered. "That's a really bad sign."

"Yeah," Hiro agreed. "We're leaving—"

"What was that!?" Ikuto yelped at a strange rasping sound.

They turned their helmet lamps to point to the largest tunnel connected to the cave chamber. There was a hissing sound and then a large gray shape soared out of the darkness. With a shriek that assaulted their eardrums it was upon them.

"What—"

Hiro didn't even have to scream before the enormous gaping maw filled with teeth like steak knives crunched into him.


	4. Part IV

**Gold and Silver**

_Part IV_

Shion fought the urge to nibble her nails down to the quick as yet another high-ranking priest slipped into the increasingly cramped chamber to find out what was going on. A good dozen priests and priestesses were already in attendance in quiet but unhappy discussion. Being only a lowly acolyte Shion had no place in voicing her own opinions to them, but she could listen to theirs and found herself mostly in agreement with what they were saying.

It was her fault, of course. She had simply assumed that she had tracked down Kogane upon seeing the vulpix and taken it without checking. She had lost Inari-sama's daughter and brought back some sort of imposter instead of the celestial vulpix she was caretaker of.

This was an omen—probably an ill omen. The loss of the daughter (a divinely important vulpix) of the ninetales who would play the role of the Fire Guardian in the upcoming and spiritually significant Summer Victory Festival was a disaster. Even if Kogane had not been so special, it would still be a disaster. Perhaps Inari-sama would be so distressed by this that she would refuse to play her role in the parade and the reenactment and then it would be—

The pale-haired girl shuddered, unable to imagine what sort of bad karma would result from an incomplete festival and how it would effect the future of the city and the country.

Kogane's birth had been the ultimate good omen. She was a celestial majuu, a magical beast blessed by the gods to be born a unique color. Her golden fur was a divine sign that she had a special future, and her arrival meant good things for the world.

…Kogane's disappearance (and apparent replacement with some sort of decoy) was indisputably a bad omen.

The only matter that remained under debate between the priests and priestesses was the nature of this problem: was it some sort of bizarre accident, or was it a concerted effort to kidnap Kogane?

_"…There was that one collector who kept offering money to us for Kogane. He was so very insistent that he have her…"_

_ "But would he risk angering the gods and Inari-sama's wrath to steal her? I have a hard time imagining anyone who would risk all of that—"_

_ "You think too good of humanity! There are horrible, greedy, selfish people out there—godless people who would think nothing of gaining whatever they desire by any means necessary."_

_ "Are-are we certain that this is no accident?"_

_ "How could this be accidental?!"_

_ "A case of mistaken identity perhaps?"_

_ "Preposterous! If there was another celestial vulpix in _Oni no Kuni,_ we would know about it. This must be a case of kidnapping!"_

To keep from biting her nails, Shion fidgeted with her sleeve as she knelt on the floor and waited for her superiors to decide what had happened and decide what would be done. Sensing her unease, Esper rubbed his sleek head against her side in an attempt to comfort her. She patted the espeon's head in thanks, but was not comforted.

_This is all because of my foolish assumption that I had located Kogane,_ she thought as her pale eyes drifted towards the imposter, which cowered under Inari-sama's burning eyes. _I will probably be sent back to Astral Town in disgrace. Mother will be so disappointed in me. But…perhaps it will be for the best. I understand psychic majuu so much better—_

"Enough of this," a woman said, halting the whispered discussion and drawing all eyes—human and majuu—to the doorway.

Priestess Kaede, one of the honored elder priestesses of the Fire Temple, stood there, firm and serene. Standing with her was a clear outsider—a young boy dressed in modern clothing instead of the traditional robes. The boy had spiky blond hair, goggles on his forehead, odd scars on his cheeks that made Shion think of whiskers, and he was accompanied by an umbreon and…some sort of insect majuu. And hanging drowsily in his arms was—

"Kogane?!" Shion gasped, momentarily forgetting her superior company.

As if hearing her exclamation, the golden vulpix stirred and came awake. The boy set her down on the marble floor as she pawed the sleep from her eyes. When the celestial vulpix took in her surroundings and regained her bearings, she made a sound of outrage and spat _embers_ at the boy, almost hitting him in the face.

"Kogane!" Shion gasped and started to stand so that she could retrieve her charge—

The imposter celestial vulpix darted in and slammed into Kogane with a _quick attack_, knocking her against the wall, and snarled at her.

Inari-sama's chamber fell silent in shock at the assault.

Only the mysterious blond boy found anything to say.

"…Aw crud."

* * *

Demon was not having a good time. He'd been snatched by some horribly confused girl, carried off to some nice building where there was nice food, and suddenly in a lot of trouble for doing something to some Kogane person. And, because he wasn't this Kogane, he wasn't allowed to eat the food that tempted him.

Once he had convinced the lady ninetales that he had no idea who her daughter was or where she was and that he had nothing to do with her being missing, there was little for him to do but sit and stare at Kogane's food and wait. Then a bunch of humans in weird outfits with weird jewelry came into the room and started talking about stuff in whispers, but Demon ignored them. And then, after a lengthy forever, something good finally happened.

"Enough of this."

In the silence that followed that command, Demon slowly looked away from the food (which had long gone cold, but he still wanted to eat it) to see what the new fuss was about. There was some old human lady standing in the entryway looking all serious. And with her was Whisker Face and Shadow and Sandy and…and…

…And his clone.

…His _female_ clone.

"Kogane?!" the confused, rather colorless girl exclaimed.

_Huh…and here I thought I was a one-of-a-kind freak…_

The real Kogane, who had been sleeping, started to wake up and Whisker Face put her down and then…

_:You!:_ Kogane barked angrily, rounding on Whisker Face. _:You brought me back here?!:_

And then she spat _embers _at the boy's face. Or, at least she tried to. Her aim was terrible and Whisker Face was pretty good at dodging fire attacks.

Demon bristled and sprinted at the vulpix, _quick attack_-ing her into a wall.

_:I'm the only one allowed to breathe fire at him!:_

"…Aw crud."

_:What?:_ Demon sniffed, glancing over at the suddenly rather glum-looking Whisker Face.

The other golden vulpix slowly slumped down to lay prone on the polished stone floor. _:You…you hit me.:_

_:No duh,:_ Demon responded.

_:You hit me!:_ she whined, outraged. _:Mother, he hit me!:_

The normal-hued vulpix that inhabited the chamber joined in Kogane's outrage.

_:Kogane-sama!:_

_ :How dare you strike Kogane-sama?!:_

_ :You brute!:_

_ :Imposter!:_

_ :Poor Kogane-sama!:_

_ :Silence!:_ Inari the ninetales hissed, immediately ending the chorus of recrimination. She fixed Demon with a hard look. _:Do not strike my daughter again.:_

Demon was intimidated, but tried not to let it show. _:Yeah, sure.:_

_ :Show my mother more respect, Imitator,:_ Kogane growled.

_:And as for you…:_ the mother ninetales growled and roughly cuffed her daughter's ear with her paw. _:Had he not already struck you I would have done so myself. You do not use your fire on humans, __**ever**__. I know that you know better than this. I am very disappointed in you, Kogane!:_

_ :But-but mother!:_ Kogane whimpered piteously.

_:Enough!:_ Inari barked. _:You have been behaving abominably as of late. You cannot simply run off whenever you please. Shion-chan always worries about you and wastes time searching for you. And this time your disappearance sparked a horrible misunderstanding and fears that someone nefarious had stolen you away out of selfishness and greed.:_

Kogane squirmed before exploding with one last complaint. _:He's copying me!:_

Demon stared at her and her accusing little paw. _:…How old are you?:_

_ :I'll be eight months old next week,:_ she informed him proudly.

_:Huh, well I'm more than a year old, so guess what?!:_ Demon shot back, jabbing his own paw at her. _:__**You**__ are copying __**me**__!:_

_:That's a lie!:_ Kogane barked. _:I am the celestial vulpix! You're just a painted imposter!:_

_ :I'm not painted,:_ Demon huffed. _:I hatched looking like this.:_

_ :Liar—:_

The ninetales cuffed the girl vulpix's ear again. _:If he were painted, I would've smelled the dye. He speaks the truth. He is a celestial vulpix, just as you are.:_

Demon frowned at that and scratched behind his ear with one of his back legs. _"Celestial vulpix"? What the heck does that mean?_

_:You must treat him with respect,:_ Inari continued. _:He is just as blessed as you are.:_

Kogane slumped, defeated. _:…Yes, mother.:_

_:Now please try and behave,:_ the ninetales sighed. _:The Summer Victory Festival is nearly upon us and we have important things to do.:_

_ :Yes, mother.:_

Satisfied, the ninetales turned and gracefully returned to her seat on the raised platform. Kogane sulkily slunk over to a cushion at the foot of the dais and flopped onto it melodramatically and went about ignoring everyone and everything. Demon rolled his eyes at the display and trotted over to sit beside Whisker Face.

And then he noticed how quiet it was. Normally when pokémon talked amongst themselves, the humans would talk amongst themselves, and the two conversations would happen separately at the same time. Or the humans would talk and the pokémon would listen. But here all the strangely dressed humans were silent and watching him and all the other pokémon in the room intently.

_:Were they…watching us talk?:_ Demon wondered.

_:Yeah,:_ Shadow said quietly. _:They all watched you. It was kind of creepy…:_

_ :Maybe…they understood what you were saying?:_ Sandy guessed.

_:No way,:_ Demon scoffed. _:Humans never understand what we say.:_

"Well," the old woman who had brought Whisker Face to the room said. "Now that Inari-sama has settled things amongst the majuu, let us settle things amongst ourselves."

"Yes," one of the men agreed. "We must interpret this new omen—a second celestial vulpix."

"Shion-chan," the old woman said to the girl. "Why don't you show our guest"—she gestured towards Whisker Face—"around the temple and entertain him?"

The girl and her espeon bowed.

"Yes, Kaede-sama."

* * *

Naruto jammed his hands into his pockets as he followed after the Shion girl. Her pale eyes, pale skin, and formal manner sort of reminded him of Hinata, except this girl's hair was long and white instead of short and black. He briefly wondered if she had anything else in common with the Hyuuga girl, like a stuttering problem or persistent fevers.

"I have to thank you for returning Kogane home," the girl said, proving she had no stuttering issue.

"It was no problem, really," he shrugged. "My name's Naruto."

"Naruto-san, where are you from?"

"Konoha Town," he replied, "in _Hi no Kuni_."

"Fire Country," the girl repeated to herself. "There aren't many temples there."

"No," Naruto agreed. "There's nothing like this place back home."

When he'd approached the Fire Temple on the directions given by the attendants at Friendly Fields, his first impression of the place was that it was a _palace_. It was huge and elaborate and every bit of decoration had something to do with the element of fire, or fire-type pokémon. He'd almost gotten lost twice while following the old lady who brought him to Demon because he was so distracted by all the artwork and free-roaming fire pokémon.

"What has brought you to Demon Country?" Shion inquired.

"My mom heard this place was really neat so I figured I'd come check it out, and then I heard about this festival so…here I am."

The temple girl paused and glanced back at him. "Do you know the history of the Summer Victory Festival?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nope."

"Then I will educate you," she decided.

Shion led him through the maze-like temple to a particular hallway. It was a quiet spot where no other temple staff seemed to be. The walls of the hall were lined with large oil paintings, and she brought him up to the first of the pictures.

It was an enormous landscape painting with dimensions measuring in feet instead of inches. The picture was of a rural scene that contained what looked to be three separate little hamlets. The little villages were crude-looking, like they were part of some ancient fairy tale.

"Nearly one thousand years ago," Shion said, "there was no Trinity City. Instead, there were three small villages: Water Village, Grass Village, and Fire Village." As she named each place, she pointed to a different cluster of distant buildings in the painting. "The Water Village was built on the shores of a lake that no longer exists and the people there made their living by fishing. The Grass Village was built on very fertile ground and the people living there made their living by farming. And the Fire Village, built on the poorest land, survived by blacksmithing and pottery-making. The three villages shared their resources and lived harmoniously together."

The girl moved on to the next painting, a portrait of three pokémon.

"Each of the three villages had a guardian majuu—"

"Majuu?" Naruto frowned, baffled by the term.

"Majuu, the magical beasts," Shion said and gestured to her espeon, and then Shadow, Sandy, and Demon. "It is their proper name. We don't use that crude slang term here."

"Pokémon?" Naruto guessed, even more baffled. _I know "pokémon" is slang for "pocket monster", but…it's not a __**crude**__ word. If it was, Mom would threaten to wash my mouth out with soap every time I say it._

"Yes, that word," the girl grimaced as if he'd said something horribly offensive, like _shit_ or some other expletive. "May I continue?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded sheepishly.

"The Water Guardian," the girl said, returning to her story, "was named Kaminami, the Divine Wave." The creature she pointed to was an empoleon that was painted a blue so bright it almost looked teal. "He was king of the lost lake and the people of the Water Village paid him homage to insure good fishing. In return for their gifts, Kaminami protected the village and the water majuu who lived among the humans.

"The Grass Guardian was named Kamihana, the Divine Flower." The monster she pointed to was a meganium with yellow-green skin and orange flower petals ringing its neck. "She was queen of the forest and the people of the Grass Village paid her homage to insure bountiful crops. In return for their gifts, Kamihana protected the village and the grass majuu who lived among the humans.

"And the Fire Guardian was named Furuhi, the Old Flame." The final monster was a charizard that looked rather ordinary save for the impressive collection of scars on his body. "He was an old charizard who flew in from the distant mountains to retire and live out his days in peace. The people of the Fire Village paid him homage and in return he protected the village and the fire majuu who lived among the humans.

"The Three Guardians lived in harmony and helped maintain peace throughout the region." The temple girl paused for a moment before continuing. "However, there was one note of discord…"

She moved on to the next painting—another pokémon portrait, of a single monster this time. It was a ninetales, but it wasn't like any ninetales that Naruto had ever seen before. It was a pale silver-gray, almost white, with no color on the tips of its tails, but it had the usual ruby-red eyes.

"A mysterious majuu lived out in the wilds and would hover around the fringes of the Fire Village. They called it the Youma no Kitsune—the Ghost Fox—for its phantom-like appearance. The villagers feared that it was a spirit that had escaped from the afterlife and that it sought to steal peoples' souls away in early deaths. The other majuu also feared the Youma no Kitsune and many times Furuhi and the other guardians would drive it away when it appeared."

Naruto couldn't help but shiver at the name assigned to the ghostly-pale ninetales. _"The Ghost Fox"? Creepy…_

"But, even with the unnerving shadow of the Youma lingering, the days of the Three Guardians were full of peace and prosperity. It was a golden age in which both human and majuu flourished. No one dreamed that it would ever end."

The next picture was a very unhappy one. The landscape of the first painting had been recreated as a disaster scene. Trees had fallen, huts had collapsed, and there were hints of destruction and despair.

"One summer, a terrible cataclysm befell the land. The earth shook and cracked, knocking down trees, smashing homes, and starting fires. The lake drained away, leaving only a few scattered ponds behind. Absol, the heralds of disaster, were seen in the distance, watching. There was great fear and suffering. And many began to whisper that the Youma had done this to harvest their souls.

"But the worst was yet to come," Shion said, moving on to the next image. It was a shadowy painting populated with indistinct monsters with glowing red eyes and surrounded by menacing purplish auras. "One night, the Demons rose up from the Gateway and other cracks in the earth and laid waste to the villages."

"Demons?" Naruto said, staring uneasily at the shadowy beasts in the painting.

"Yes, Demons," the girl nodded, "evil majuu from the Underworld. Some had tentacles, some had hard shells, some had claws like blades, some had enormous teeth, and some could even fly on bat-like wings. In the dark of the night they rose from the bowels of the earth and destroyed what was left of the villages, devoured their crops, and even carried off some human and majuu to feast upon their flesh. The nightmare lasted all night until the powerful rays of the sun appeared and drove the Demons back to the Underworld."

The temple girl brought Naruto to the next painting, a sorrowful meeting of human and pokémon.

"The survivors of the three villages met the next day and decided that to fight was the only option. When the sun set again the Demons would return and they would have to be ready. The humans gathered what weapons they could, but because of their peaceful existence all they had were sharp farm implements. The Three Guardians marshaled majuu of their three elements and prepared for the coming battle.

"But as the sun began to set and the cries of the Demons began to grow louder," Shion said, moving on to the next painting in the sequence, "another disaster occurred. Furuhi was old and past his prime and as the battle approached a terrible cowardice grew in his heart. He took flight and fled to the mountains from which he had come, never to return. He left the fire majuu with no leader, and the humans with no protection."

Naruto scowled at the picture of the ragged charizard flying off into the twilight as people and pokémon pleaded for him to return. _What a chicken-hearted jerk!_

"The Demons again rose up through the Gateway and entered into battle," she said, leading him to a painting of a chaotic battle. "It raged for hours and was terrible beyond description. The villagers and majuu managed to defeat many of the Demons, but the flying Demons were the strongest and most vicious and they refused to stop attacking. The water and grass majuu were growing weak, the medicines were running out, and their doom seemed certain."

"And then the Youma no Kitsune appeared upon the battlefield," the temple girl said, bringing him to the next picture. "The villagers feared that it would side with the Demons and drag them all down to the Underworld…but the ninetales did not. Instead, the Youma rallied the wavering fire majuu and boldly attacked the leader of the winged Demons."

Naruto couldn't help but be mesmerized by the painting of the pale ninetales locked in mortal combat with a black flying beast that sort of looked like a charizard fused with a golbat.

"It was a violent fight and the Youma suffered many wounds, but he refused to stop fighting until all the winged Demons retreated down the Gateway. Once they were all underground, he drummed his nine tails on the ground—and Kaminami and Kamihana stomped their feet—and summoned a small _earthquake_ that collapsed many of the subterranean tunnels, sealing the Demons away forever. The battle was won, and everyone celebrated."

The next picture was a happy one, full of cheering and celebration and joyful relief.

"But the victory came at a price," Shion sighed. "The ninetales' wounds were mortal and he had exhausted all of his strength in the battle. As the humans and majuu cheered, he laid down and slipped away. When the people discovered his death, they were greatly saddened and horribly ashamed at the way that they had treated him while he had lived."

The boy got a bit misty eyed at the next picture—the way that the people carried the limp body of the dead ninetales on the litter and the sorrowful looks on their face really conveyed their deep grief.

"In honor and gratitude of his sacrifice, he was buried with great ceremony at the heart of the Fire Village. They renamed him Gingitsune—the Silver Fox—and posthumously declared him to be the Fire Guardian, stripping the title from the disgraced and self-exiled Furuhi. A shrine was built on top of his grave, and that shrine is the cornerstone of this very temple. And every summer on the anniversary of the great battle a festival was held to remember the events and honor the majuu who fought so bravely."

Shion stared at the final painting of Gingitsune's grave and original shrine for a moment before ending the tale.

"And that is the history of the Summer Victory Festival."

"Wow!" Naruto breathed. "That's awesome!"

"It's not just some 'awesome' story," Shion sniffed. "It is a historical and spiritual event that we honor with our festival. In a few days, the three temples will put on a parade that ends with a recreation of the ancient battle to remember and honor those ancient majuu. It is the most important event in Trinity City, one of the most important events in all of Demon Country."

"Okay…" Naruto glanced back along the series of paintings. "Who did these? They're really good."

"A famous artist of Demon Country named Sugimori did all of these paintings," the girl replied. "He studied ancient records and the oral histories to make sure that everything he painted was as accurate as possible. The originals are in some museum, I don't recall which one; he donated copies to the Fire Temple, the Water Temple, and the Grass Temple."

"Cool," Naruto remarked and backed up to his favorite picture—Gingitsune versus the Winged Demon King. "Really cool." He grinned and glanced over at his three monster companions. "Don't you guys think so?"

Sandy and Shadow both nodded enthusiastically, but Demon didn't seem to hear him. The golden vulpix just stared at the silver form of the legendary Gingitsune, transfixed. Naruto decided to take that reaction as agreement and went back to admiring the dynamic picture.

_POP!_

Naruto glanced back over at his tour guide and saw that an abra had appeared beside her and passed her a note.

"Thank you Casey," the girl murmured and studied the scrap of paper. Whatever it said had to be bad because she visibly slumped after reading it. "Oh no…"

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked curiously.

Shion grimaced. "Kogane has slipped away…again."


	5. Part V

**Gold and Silver**

_Part V_

Naruto frowned at the fronts gates of the Friendly Fields.

"Are you sure that she's in there?"

"Yes," Shion nodded. "This is the only place outside of the temple that Kogane is familiar with; she always runs here."

"Miss Shion?" one of the attendants greeted in confusion. "You're back again?"

"Kogane-sama didn't run off again…did she?" the other asked.

"No," the first said and gestured to Demon, who was peeking around Naruto's leg. "There she is! Hello, Kogane-sama!"

Demon snorted and edged further behind the boy's legs.

"Oh, that's not Kogane, that's…" The girl trailed off.

"Demon," Naruto supplied.

Shion gave him a disapproving look. "You named it that?! That's a horrible name for a celestial majuu!"

Naruto cringed. "Er…"

"There's another?!" the first attendant gasped.

"So our eyes weren't playing tricks on us before," the other murmured, and then studied the boy for a moment. "You…you were the one who attacked Kogane-sama."

"What?!" Shion gasped.

"I didn't hurt her!" Naruto yelped. "It was just a dose of _spore_! That doesn't hurt; it just makes the target sleep. It was to keep her from running back into the park…" He glanced curiously at the temple girl. "Why does she keep running away?"

"We're not sure," Shion frowned. "But we need to find her before it gets dark and bring her home."

"Go on ahead," the second attendant urged, waving them on.

"Good luck," the other added.

Shion hurried into the park with her espeon hot on her heels. Naruto jogged after her with Sandy, Shadow, and Demon. The ladies at the gate watched them go, looking worried.

The temple girl didn't stop until she came to a tree stump where she turned to her espeon.

"Esper, please summon help."

The espeon's eyes glowed briefly with psychic power—

_POP! POP! POP!_

The abra from before _teleported_ into the park, along with a little green natu and a white, child-like ralts.

"Everyone, I need your help," Shion pleaded, clasping her hands together. "Kogane has gone missing again and we can waste no time in finding her." She glanced over at Naruto. "Do you have another majuu, or are those the only ones who follow you?"

"Yeah, I have others," Naruto replied as he loosed Shiitake, silently hoping that the aggressive mushroom behaved himself this time. _It's too bad Bolt isn't here…he can get along with just about anybody._

"Good, now everyone can pair up and we can search faster," the girl nodded approvingly.

After a bit of milling about, the collection of pokémon settled on their own pairs: Shadow decided to stick with the espeon, Sandy teamed up with the natu, Shiitake ended up with the abra, and Demon was left with the ralts.

"Alright, now we should each pick a direction and—"

"Wait, wait!" Naruto hurriedly took his pack off and dug through his supplies. "Where is it?"

"You have something that could help in the search?" Shion asked hopefully.

"No," the blond boy admitted as he fished out a scarf. "But this'll help tell Kogane and Demon apart while we're here."

When Ino had borrowed Demon for use in a few contests, she'd not only given him Shiitake, she'd given him a cut of some of the prizes she'd picked up. He'd gotten a few berries (one of them was so rare, he'd sent it home so his mother could cultivate it into a bush) and a _blue scarf_. The scarf boosted a pokémon's beauty and outside of contests it was thoroughly useless.

"There," he grinned after tying the fine _blue scarf_ around his vulpix's neck. "Now we can get going!"

The temple girl seemed to approve of this move, and within a few minutes they had all spread out to begin their search for the runaway Kogane.

"So you compete in contests?" Shion asked as she led the way through the park. "How many ribbons do you have?"

"I don't compete in contests," Naruto corrected. "One of my old neighbors does; I got that scarf from her when I lent her Demon for a little while. She got in a feud with some guy called Idate and really wanted to show him up with something special."

"Oh." The girl sounded horribly disappointed. "So…you compete in pokéthlons?"

"Nope," he replied. "I might try one of those someday, but right now I'm focused on collecting badges."

"Oh." Now she sounded downright disgusted. "And you use…Demon…in your challenges?"

"Of course," Naruto snorted as he peeked into a dense clump of bushes. "Why wouldn't I?"

She didn't reply to that, but the look on her face spoke for her.

"What?" Naruto frowned.

"It is an affront to the gods to compel a celestial majuu to battle," Shion informed him quietly. "I hope you are prepared for the consequences of your actions."

Naruto stared at her.

_O-kay…_

* * *

Demon was horribly annoyed. He'd come to a place where he'd been mistaken for someone else, that someone else was a horrible brat, and now he was stuck looking for that horrible brat while wearing a silly scarf so that there would be no more mix-ups. And he hadn't gotten any lunch yet.

_:Does Kogane run off a lot?:_ he asked disinterestedly while sniffing at the ground.

_:She has been running away more and more frequently,:_ the ralts—called Naito—replied as he glided along in search of the missing vulpix. _:For some reason she has been growing unhappy.:_

_ :You're a psychic, right?:_ Demon snorted. _:Can't you just read her mind and find out why?:_

_ :It's not that simple,:_ Naito sighed. _:It is much easier to read one's mind when they allow it. She fights us, and we don't want to risk hurting her.:_

_ :Why? It's not like she's make of glass,:_ Demon scoffed.

_:But she is celestial—a gift from the heavens,:_ Naito said. _:She is a treasure as you are a treasure.:_

Demon rolled his eyes. _:Yeah, sure.:_

Their search really wasn't going well. So far the only yellow things they'd seen had turned out to be a pikachu and a psyduck. Demon was starting to wonder if Kogane had even come to this park again.

_:Are you sure she's here?:_ Demon grumbled as he peeked into a loose pile of rock.

_:Yes, I can sense her,:_ Naito nodded and tugged at one of his red horns. _:I just can't pin her location down exactly.:_

_ Then what good are you?_ Demon wondered sourly.

They emerged from some bushes to find the fenced-in hole in the ground that Whisker Face had found so fascinating earlier in the day. It was just as deserted as before, and just as un-interesting. But then some bushes a few yards away started rustling.

_:Over there!:_ Naito cried, pointing to the moving foliage. _:She's there!:_

_:Finally!:_ Demon growled and lunged. _:Get out here you brat!:_

He crashed into the bush and knocked his female counterpart loose from her hiding spot. She tumbled into view, flopping nose over tails onto the open grass. Naito was horrified by Demon's actions, but he ignored the ralts in favor of berating the girl vulpix.

_:What is your problem?!:_ he snarled. _:I've missed lunch because of you!:_

Kogane bared her little teeth right back at him. _:You didn't have to come look for me—you could've refused. And you hit me again! You brute!:_

_ :Get over it!:_ Demon barked back. _:Now answer the question. What is wrong with you?! Why are you running away from that nice place that you live and causing everyone such trouble?:_

_ :"That nice place".:_ Kogane repeated scornfully. _:Why do I run away from "that nice place"? The temple smothers me! All I see are the same walls, the same halls, the same grounds, the same faces! This place here is the only other place I know in the whole world! And I'll never see anything more because I am celestial! Fate chains me to the temple so that my holy presence keeps the gods smiling upon this city. I'll never be free! Unless…:_

Her lengthy, thoughtful silence irritated Demon immensely. _:Unless what?:_

_ :Tell me…what sort of temple are you from?:_ she asked. _:What sort of temple allows one such as you travel to far distant places?:_

_ :Temple?:_ Demon laughed derisively. _:I'm not from any temple. I was born out in the wilds on a hill in the middle of nowhere! I've never been in any sort of temple until I came here.:_

_ :You…are from no temple?:_ Naito murmured, as if the idea was unfathomable.

_:How strange…:_ Kogane remarked. _:But that's even better for me.:_ She straightened up and made a ridiculous demand. _:We will trade places.:_

Demon snorted. _:No we won't.:_

_:Yes we will,:_ she arrogantly insisted. _:You will stay here and be the celestial vulpix for the humans and I will leave to have an adventure. No one will know the difference.:_

_ :Oh yes they will!:_ he retorted. _:Your mother knew right away that I wasn't you. And it won't take much longer for the humans to figure it out. You'll never make it out of this city!:_

_ :You are going to take my place,:_ Kogane commanded. _:Now give me that beautiful scarf!:_

Demon easily dodged her lunge and kicked her lightly with his back paws as she passed him. _:No way.:_ He looked at her in disgust. _:Tell me, do you know how to battle?:_

_ :I am celestial; I am a majuu of the Fire Temple…why would I battle?:_

He laughed at that. _:Then there's no way that you'd survive if you could get away with taking my place! The moment that Whisker Face calls you out to battle he would know!:_

_ :Whisker Face?:_ Naito repeated, baffled.

_:You will take my place!:_ Kogane desperately insisted, stamping a paw furiously. _:Give me that scarf or I won't leave this park!:_

Demon laughed harder. _:If you want this scarf from me, come and take it!:_

Kogane hesitated before dashing at him with a cry. He easily side-stepped her. She charged again, he dodged again, and again and again and again. She was laughably easy to evade.

_:Hold still!:_ Kogane wailed in frustration.

_:No,:_ he snickered. _:If you want this scarf—and my place—you'll have to earn it. So earn it!:_

With a scream, Kogane launched an _ember _assault at him…which he simply stood and took to no effect.

_:What? Was that supposed to hurt me?:_ Demon asked scornfully. _:I have the power of __**flash fire**__, just like you do.:_

Still determined to struggle, Kogane make the clumsiest _quick attack_ Demon had ever seen, barely managing to clip him as he bounced out of the way. When she tried it again, he was thoroughly fed up with her foolishness and stopped holding back. Before she could get within a foot of him, he sent her flying backwards with the psychic force of _extrasensory_.

_:Kogane!:_ Naito cried, tugging nervously at his front horn.

_:You…:_ Kogane wheezed, unable to stand after the stunning and powerful blow. _:How…did you do that? You…you struck me…without moving…without touching me.:_

_ :I used __**extrasensory**__,:_ he replied with a bored yawn. _:It's a psychic attack that I learned after a lot of hard training and battling.:_ He sneered at her. _:Can you do anything beyond a little __**ember**__ attack, or a __**quick attack**__?:_

The celestial vulpix lay flat on her stomach and stared up at him silently.

_:I didn't think so,:_ he grunted and turned to the timid ralts. _:Tell everyone where we are and that we found the brat. I'd like to get to eating something as soon as possible.:_

_ :Yes,:_ Naito bowed and concentrated.

_:…You're mean,:_ Kogane whimpered piteously from the grass.

_:And you're a spoiled brat,: _Demon shot back, unbothered.

They didn't have long to wait for the others to arrive. Sandy and Naty the natu arrived first; being able to fly was a real advantage. Shiitake and Casey the abra _teleported _in next—the shroomish being an angry pain the whole time. And Shadow and Esper the espeon arrived last, leading the ghostly pale temple girl and Whisker Face in.

"Are you serious?!" Whisker Face sputtered to the girl. "That ninetales is five _hundred_ years old?!"

"That is what I said," the white-haired girl replied tersely. "Inari-sama ascended to ninetales the year that it was decided to expand Gingitsune's shrine into a proper temple dedicated to the element of fire."

"Whoa," the boy muttered. "And I thought that Madara was crazy old… Hey, we're back here?"

"The Gateway," the girl hissed. "This place is dangerous and tainted. We must leave quickly. Kogane!"

The female vulpix was back on her paws and trying to flee. _:No! I won't go back! You can't make me!:_

_:Oh yes we can!:_ Demon yelled back.

"Don't let her get away!" Whisker Face ordered unnecessarily.

Shadow was already in the fleeing vulpix's path and his red eyes began to glow as he powered up his _mean look_. _:Hold it right—:_

_ :Yah!:_ Shiitake shouted, diving at Kogane from the side and striking her with one of his "egg moves": _false swipe_.

Kogane, already soundly thrashed by _extrasensory_, collapsed like a ragdoll. _:Ooh… How dare you…hit me! How dare you?!:_

_ :Oh shut up,:_ Demon grumbled. _:You're so annoying.:_

"Such violence," the temple girl muttered as she moved to collect the prone golden fox. "Inari-sama will not be pleased at all."

"Shiitake, would you just stop," Whisker Face complained to the mushroom.

_:I won,:_ Shiitake declared, stomping his green feet. _:I won, I won, I won!:_

_ :Stop butting in on my fights!:_ Shadow growled. _:I could've stopped her without doing any damage. And now Naruto-kun will get in trouble!:_

_ :But I won!:_ Shiitake said, puffing up. _:Now I am stronger!:_

_ :Yes, but you shouldn't take others' fights,:_ Sandy scolded, vibrating her diamond-shaped wings. _:It's not nice.:_

_ :But I won!:_

_ :Yeah, we get it—shut up,:_ Demon groaned.

"Come, Kogane," the girl cooed. "Let us return to the temple."

_:No,:_ Kogane whined. _:No, no I won't go!:_

And then she belted out a _roar_…

…Only she didn't aim it at anything or anyone.

The sound was still jarring and unnerving though, especially when it echoed its way down the cave shaft mere yards away. Naty, Casey, and Naito were all rattled enough to _teleport_ away, leaving the white-haired girl with only Esper as a helper. Sandy darted off briefly before returning, Shiitake hunkered down to the ground and shivered a bit, and Demon and Shadow merely flinched. The boy and girl flinched too, and the temple girl nearly dropped Kogane before recovering.

"Huh, I really think that she doesn't want to go back," Whisker Face remarked, stating the blatantly obvious.

"Well—"

A horrible screeching sound rose up from the pit of the Gateway, followed immediately by a dense cloud of zubat and golbat. The monster bats boiled up into the afternoon sky like a column of smoke and swirled there for a moment. Then the nocturnal creatures split into smaller streams and peeled off in search of new dark places to hide.

_:I don't like this…:_ Shadow muttered, bristling.

_:Nor do I,:_ Esper hissed.

"This isn't good," Whisker Face said. "Wild zubat and golbat never come out in daylight. Not unless something nasty is chasing them."

"Like what?" the pale girl wondered.

The screeching cry repeated, louder and clearer. And then a dark shape exploded up into the air out of the dark hole of the Gateway. Then another, and then another.

The three monsters were large, roughly the size of charizards if not slightly larger. They had leathery purple wings, long tails with arrowhead tips, enormous blocky heads, and gray skin. As they wheeled overhead like vultures they caught a glimpse of the creatures' long, steak-knife teeth.

_:What are they?!:_ Demon hissed, arching his back and bristling.

_:They're so big,:_ Sandy squeaked, floating low to the ground.

_:They are high up there,:_ Shiitake observed. _:…I can't fight them up there.:_

"Those…" Whisker Face whispered. "Those are…"

_:Bright! Bright!:_ one of the flying beasts shrieked as it soared high above them.

It had a strange accent to its speech—crude, simplistic, primitive.

_:Down there! Down there!:_ a second one cried. _:Lunch!:_

_ :Lunch?!:_ the third chirped.

_:Lunch!:_ the first cried.

"Winged Demons," the pale girl whimpered. "They've come from the Underworld to devour us!"

With horrible cries, the three monsters dove at them, falling like stones.

"Those aren't demons," Whisker Face yelped. "Those are aerodactyl! _Run!_"


	6. Part VI

**Gold and Silver**

_Part VI_

The only time that Naruto had ever seen an aerodactyl before had been on television. It had been featured in a documentary on extinct pokémon and revived from genetic material obtained from a chunk of old amber. The flying rock monster had seemed vicious and wild, even though it had obeyed its handler's orders and performed for the cameras.

And now here were _three_ of them diving out of the sky looking like they wanted to _eat_ him.

_Where did they come from?!_ he wondered as he sprinted into the dense trees that ringed the Gateway cave. _It would be huge news if three of these things escaped from captivity—I'd know about it! And they can't be wild…can they?_

"Aah!"

Naruto looked over his shoulder to see that Shion had tripped on her flowing traditional _miko_ robes and lay helpless on the grass, desperately shielding Kogane with her body while Esper crouched by her side. The first aerodactyl, an ugly brute with a scarred face, broken horn, and a mission tooth, missed sinking its jaws into her by a hair as it was forced to pull up or crash into the ground. The other two ended up colliding with each other as they tried to strike her at the same time and they thudded into the ground mere feet from the girl in a tangle of leathery wings.

_Holy crap!_

The girl seemed frozen, cowering against the grass as she stared wide-eyed at the struggling fossil monsters.

"Shion, get over here!" he shouted. "Get under the trees!"

The ugly brute that was still flying wheeled overhead and was clearly lining up another attacking dive on the temple girl.

"Typhoon!" Naruto summoned the mighty gyarados and pointed towards Shion. "Protect the girl with _aqua tail_!"

His water serpent slithered around the girl and her two monsters, raising his water-shrouded tail like a baseball bat.

"Demon, burn them with _will-o-wisp_!" Naruto commanded, pointing to the two struggling on the ground. "Shiitake, _leech seed_!"

Demon sprayed the grounded aerodactyl with purple-blue fire orbs until both rock monsters were thoroughly burned. Shiitake eagerly fired seeds from the top of his head that landed on the fossil monsters and sprouted into clinging, energy-draining vines. Both attacks would slowly but steadily eat into those aerodactyl's health and keep them at a disadvantage.

The older, ugly one dove from the sky again at the girl, heedless of the gyarados that now defended her. Perhaps it was arrogance, perhaps it was ignorance, but the aerodactyl paid for its charge. As soon as it was close enough, Typhoon smashed his water-covered tail into the side of the winged creature, knocking it sideways out of the air and into the ground.

"Alright Typhoon!" Naruto cheered, pumping his fist.

The two grounded aerodactyl, crying in pain from their burns, disentangled and struggled back into the air where they circled above the battlefield, out of easy reach.

The scarred one wobbled upright from the painful _aqua tail_ and whirled on Typhoon with rage. Its mouth filled with sparks of electricity before it bit into Typhoon's coils, spreading electricity all over the water monster. The gyarados collapsed, trembling and flinching from the shocking bite.

"_Thunder fang_?" Naruto pouted. "Crap. Sandy, give that snaggletooth a blast of _dragon breath_!"

The vibrava swooped in and hit the ugly aerodactyl with a spray of yellow-orange dragon flames. The aerodactyl hissed and tried to use _thunder fang_ on Sandy, but as she was a ground-type that made her immune to the attack. Furious, the aerodactyl tried to simply _bite_ Sandy but she evaded its toothy jaws.

"Typhoon, move that girl under the trees," Naruto instructed as the gyarados finally shrugged off the doubly super-effective hit. "Sandy, keep that aerodactyl busy with _screech_!"

His gyarados began nudging the girl towards the cover of the trees, finally getting the temple acolyte moving with Kogane and Esper. Sandy let out a painfully high-pitched noise that left the aerodactyl cringing with lowered defenses. But once the sound ended, the fossil monster turned and fixed Naruto with a glare.

_Uh-oh…_

With a shriek, the heavily-scarred aerodactyl soared several yards over the open grass right at Naruto and swung its forearm in a _wing attack_. Naruto tried to lurch back deeper into the trees where the aerodactyl wouldn't be able to fly but enough of the wingtip hit him to knock him out into the open and steal his breath away. And then, as he was blinking stars from his eyes, he was flying.

"Whuh?"

The aerodactyl had his backpack in its claws and was steadily climbing, dragging him along for the ride.

"Wah!" Naruto yelped. "Sandy help!"

Being able to fly, Sandy was the only who could reach him up here. She darted up to him…but was intercepted by the other two aerodactyl who'd been circling. They'd been continuously weakened by their burns and the _leech seed_ plants, but they still had more than enough bite to them left. One caught Sandy's wing with a useless _thunder fang_ and the other caught her other side with a marginally useful _fire fang_.

"Hey, let her go you jerks—_wah_!"

His captor made a sudden brief dive, jostling him and almost shaking him out of his bag straps—which at his current height would've certainly brought about his death.

Sandy squealed…and then started to glow.

Naruto blinked. "Eh?"

The vibrava was consumed by light, and then her silhouette started to change. Her two sets of wings merged into a single larger set, her body thickened, her neck lengthened, and her little antennae changed into large backswept horns. When the blinding light cleared, she wasn't a vibrava anymore.

"Yeah, Sandy!" Naruto cheered.

With a hissing roar, the flygon tore her wings free and blew past the two startled aerodactyl towards Naruto and his captor with claws glowing bright green.

"Yeah, c'mon, _dragon claw_!"

Sandy darted in and slammed her glowing claws into the senior aerodactyl's jaw. The blow was stunning. But not stunning enough. The scarred aerodactyl swung around and struck back with an _ice fang_.

"No!"

Her left wing was totally encased in ice from the bite and she feel in a dizzying spiral like a wounded fighter plane.

"You jerk, you jerk, you jerk!" Naruto howled, flailing about and managing to smack the aerodactyl a few times. "Land right now and put me down!"

Screeching, the aerodactyl and its two cohorts dove down, down, down into the black depths of the Gateway…taking Naruto with them.

_"Waaaah!"_

* * *

Demon stared at the stupid, stupid fenced hole in the ground where the aerodactyl monsters had taken Whisker Face.

_:No…:_

_:No, Naruto-kun, no!:_ Shadow wailed.

_:Naruto-kun?:_ Typhoon warbled in a piteous whine.

_:Someone get this ice off me!:_ Sandy demanded. _:Get it off! I need to go down there!:_

_ :You can't go down there,:_ Esper scoffed. _:It's—:_

_ :Here I come Naruto-sama!:_ Shiitake cried and bounded towards the wrought iron fence.

"Stop, you!" the pale girl ordered. "Don't go any closer to the Gateway!"

Shiitake didn't listen. The shroomish bashed into the fence repeatedly with _tackle _and _headbutt_ and kicked at it with _false swipe_. The black metal fence rattled, but didn't break. Shiitake didn't stop.

"Stop it!" the pale girl cried, clutching a silent Kogane to her chest. "You'll anger the Demons and draw them back!"

_:Listen to Shion!:_ Esper commanded.

Demon clenched his teeth and rushed over to Sandy, who struggled with her frozen wing on the grass. Blasting the ice with a _flamethrower_ he kept up the heat until the ice shattered and freed the wing up. With the icy anchor gone, the flygon was more than ready to get going.

_:Hurry up!: _Demon demanded, hopping onto the desert dragon's back. _:Let's go beat those freaky beasts!:_

_ :I'm coming too!: _Shadow cried, hurrying over to hop on as well.

Shiitake seemed too engrossed in attacking the fence to notice that there was now a free ride over the fence and down the hole.

_:I want to come too!:_ Typhoon shouted.

_:Don't be stupid,:_ Demon barked. _:You're too big and heavy. If you want to help, jump down the hole yourself!:_

Shadow made it to Sandy and joined Demon on the flygon's back. The green dragon flapped her wings and started to lift off—

"Halt!" a man's voice bellowed. "That is a forbidden area! Move away from that cave!"

They all glanced back to see police officers. The humans' uniforms were different from those in Fire Country, but it was clear that's what the humans were. With them were a few growling growlithe.

"We received reports that there was battling going on here," the senior policeman announced. "Battling pokémon is strictly forbidden in the Friendly Fields. Lady Priestess, can you tell us what has occurred here?"

"I am not a full priestess," the pale girl said. "But I witnessed the battle. Three Demons of the ancient world rose up from the Gateway and attacked us—a foreign boy and I. He commanded his majuu to drive the Demons away, but in the end one of the Demons carried the boy back down through the Gateway and into the Underworld."

"Demons?" one of the younger policemen muttered. "Like from the old legends?"

"So…this boy was…_eaten_?" another wondered.

_CRASH!_

Shiitake's relentless assault on the fence had finally broken a section of it down, leaving a sizable gap for the shroomish to pass through.

_:I did it!:_ Shiitake preened. And then he dove right down the cave shaft. _:Here I come, Naruto-sama!:_

_:He's insane!:_ Shadow squeaked.

_:I'll catch him!:_ Sandy declared. _:Hold on!:_

"Don't let them go down there!" the pale girl gasped. "They will attract more Demons to the surface!"

"We'll stop them," the senior police officer said. "Men, put them to sleep!"

There was the popping sound of monsters being released from confinement and then a small flock of spherical hoothoot fluttered into their path and used _hypnosis_. Typhoon, Sandy, and Shadow fell victim to the attack and fell asleep. But Demon closed his eyes and refused to nap.

_:You won't put me to sleep!:_ Demon snarled and sprayed _flamethrower_ at the birds to end their _hypnosis_. _:I won't—:_

A body knocked him down and he opened his eyes in surprise to find the espeon pinning him. _:How dare you attack police majuu?!:_

One of the hoothoot got in Demon's face and started _hypnosis_ up again before the golden vulpix could escape.

"There is no point in struggling," the pale girl said as Demon drifted away under the spell of the owl creature. "That boy is already dead."

* * *

On the way down, Shiitake bounced off a zubat. Then he landed in a pool of water. If not for those two things, he would've ended up a smashed mushroom from the leap that he'd taken.

But that was of no concern to him.

All that mattered was that he was on his way to accomplishing what he'd set out to do: follow Naruto.

After struggling to the edge of the pool (it was hard to swim without having any hands), he climbed onto the rubble-y shore and shook himself dry. He looked around at the high, high walls of the cave shaft until he spied an opening half-blocked with chunks of fallen rock. Near the opening, he saw Naruto's beloved goggles.

The shroomish bounded up the rocks until he reached the goggles, and then he peered into the pitch black tunnel beyond them.

_Naruto-sama…_

He picked the goggles up in his mouth (as he had no hands) and stomped off into the darkness.

_I am coming…_

* * *

Shion trudged back to the Fire Temple with dreaded gnawing at her. After speaking with the police, they had provided temporary capsules in which to hold the boy Naruto's majuu (as their usual spheres were lost with the boy). She would bring the guardian-less majuu back to the temple with her, and after the festival they would be distributed to appropriate temples in other cities were they would be taken care of and properly loved.

Kogane was being quiet and cooperative in a way that she hadn't been for nearly two months. The celestial vulpix put up no struggle when they exited Friendly Fields. It was a great relief, and it allowed her to carry the slumbering Demon (whose name would surely be changed to something far more appropriate by the priests) back to the temple without worrying about Kogane fleeing.

_The Demons have returned…_

That knowledge weighed heavily on her mind. With the Summer Victory Festival barely more than a week away, it was the worst time for such a thing to occur. But at the same time, it made sense. The seals created by the original Three Guardians had failed, and now it was time for the battle to be fought again and for fresh sacrifice to be made.

_I wonder…who will have to die this time to seal away the evil Demons? Hopefully not Kogane; she's so young. But Inari-sama…_

She turned her thoughts away from such a horrible possibility.

Instead, she reflected on Naruto of Fire Country. His loss was very sad, but she wasn't terribly surprised by it. Those who did not treat celestial majuu were doomed to suffer the wrath of the gods, someway, somehow.

_That poor, ignorant boy…he brought his end upon himself._

* * *

"Yosh!" Lee cried, waving his bandage-wrapped fist in the air. "If we do not reach the next village by nightfall, I will do one hundred push-ups and—"

"Lee," Tenten groused, "do you really have to announce all of that to us?"

"I must!" the boy with the bowl-cut declared. "Gai-sensei says that a man's word is his honor, and by speaking my punishment for not meeting my goal aloud I put my honor on the line. To uphold my honor, I must complete the punishment!"

"Alright, alright," Tenten sighed. "Continue then."

While Gai-sensei's faithful disciple declared what he would endure should his goal not be met, Tenten slowed her pace slightly so that she was walking even with the final member of their traveling trio: Neji Hyuuga. The stoic boy gave no sign that he'd noticed Tenten pacing him, or that he cared that she was. But even though he seemed wholly unaware of his surroundings, nothing was further from the truth.

Months ago, the three of them had departed from Gai-sensei's fighting pokémon dojo outside of Saru City in Fire Country. Their common mentor had gathered them to him one day and encouraged them to go off and journey the world and stretch their young wings. The parting had been emotional (for Lee and Gai-sensei), but the three of them had gone off as they had been told to.

Lee had won the game of rock-paper-scissors and so had chosen where they would go first. He chose Earth Country, where there was a tournament for fighting type pokémon (and only fighting type pokémon). So they had gone there, participated, and learned from it.

Tenten's turn came next. Instead of selecting a practical destination, she chose to visit Wave Country—a place just coming out of hard times by building a bridge and turning into a major tourist spot. She dragged them along to the beaches and tried her best to suck them into games and swimming.

_"Life isn't all about training and preparing for the next battle,"_ she'd said when Lee had complained. _"Sometimes we have to step back and have a little fun while we can."_

But now it was Neji's turn to decide their direction. Where Lee had chosen a place for physical strength and skill, and Tenten had chosen a place for fun, Neji chose something mental and spiritual. And so they were journeying into Demon Country.

_Oni no Kuni_—Demon Country—was a small country steeped in history, tradition, and spirituality. Every village, no matter how small, had at least one shrine to some deity or force of nature. And large cities had temples, sometimes multiple temples. People lived in harmony with pokémon there, and had done so centuries before most cultures had.

Trinity City was only a few days journey away (perhaps less, the map was a bit vague on distances and terrain). There were plenty of places on the city fringe where Lee would be able to train with his pokémon disciples the way that they pleased. An upcoming festival would provide Tenten with plenty of entertainment. And hopefully the three elemental temples would provide Neji with the spiritual guidance he sought.

Neji closed his eyes briefly.

_"You're no man!" the loud, foolish boy, a full year his junior, shouted in rage as he wiped blood from his mouth. "No man would do that to family! Say you're sorry or I'll beat you up and make you!"_

The Hyuuga boy exhaled and refocused his pallid eyes on the path ahead.

_What is fate?_


	7. Part VII

**Gold and Silver**

_Part VII_

Demon drifted back to consciousness on a silky golden pillow. All around him were vulpix reclining on soft red cushions looking perfectly content. Across from him there had to be a mirror as a vulpix that looked exactly like him lay on an identical pillow. To his left was a raised platform on which a ninetales sat, being gently brushed by a human in odd red and white robes.

_No wait,_ Demon thought blearily. _That's Kogane over there, and…_

And then he remembered.

_What am I doing here?!_ He leapt up and ran for the door, intent on getting out of the temple as fast as possible. _I don't have time for this!_

A pompous-looking man blocked his path. "Where are you going? You must rest; you've suffered a terrible shock."

_:Outta my way!: _Demon snarled, flashing his teeth.

_:I'm sorry, but we can't do that,:_ a dopey-looking torkoal said as it stood beside the human. _:Master Daikon is right; you must rest.:_

_ :Shut up, you stupid tortoise!:_ Demon hissed and rushed in to try and push his way past—

An invisible force yanked him back into the chamber.

_:Mind your manners,:_ the ninetales scolded. _:You are in my domain.:_

Demon ignored the warning and prepared to redouble his efforts to escape.

_:Listen to Mother,:_ Kogane said. _:It's not like you have anything left out there. That boy was eaten.:_

He froze and slowly turned to face his female double. _:You…:_ he growled and bristled. _:This…this is all your fault!:_

_ :No, it—:_

_ :Yes it is!:_ Demon howled. _:If you hadn't run back to that park, none of this would've happened!:_

_ :I—:_

_**:I hate you!:**_

Demon charged her, starting up a _payback_ attack, intent on tearing her to pieces—

The invisible force halted his rush and pinned him to the hard floor. He struggled and struggled, but to no avail. The ninetales slowly stepped into his field of view, her eyes glowing blue with the psychic power of _extrasensory_.

_:That. Is. Enough.:_ she growled.

He still didn't stop trying to struggle. _:Old hag!:_

_ :How dare you disrespect Mother!:_ Kogane barked.

_:That is enough from you as well,:_ Inari scolded. _:He is right. It is because of you and your selfish actions that that boy is dead.:_

_:But—:_

_ :Do not speak to me for the rest of the day,:_ the ninetales hissed. _:You will not be accompanying me to the Friendly Fields for the foreseeable future. Reflect on this and hopefully you will learn something.:_

Stung, the bratty little princess slunk over to her cushion and flopped down there.

The pressure of the _extrasensory_ lifted, but before Demon could bolt the ninetales had lifted him by his _blue scarf_ and dragged him back to her pedestal bed. Inari dumped him there and easily pinned him down with her paws. She started tugging the scarf off his neck with her teeth—

_:Stop it! Don't touch that!:_ Demon yapped as he squirmed mightily. _:That's mine!:_

_:There is no need to shout,:_ Inari said calmly. _:And there is no need to fear. I won't destroy it or throw it away. I just want to clean you.:_

And then the scarf was off and the ninetales was tongue-grooming him the way that he distantly recalled his mother doing.

_:Aah! Knock it off, Old Hag! You're not my Mama!:_

But she didn't stop, she just kept licking—slow, steady, and calm. Quite against his will Demon found himself relaxing, instinctively reacting to the soothing touch. Eventually Inari loosened her paws and he had enough wiggle room to draw the _blue scarf_ in to his chest and cuddle it like a baby blanket.

_:It hurts when a human that we love dies,:_ Inari told him. _:I have lived a very long time, and I have outlived countless humans that I came to love dearly. But as they passed away, they wished for me to live on and be happy. I am certain that that boy would wish the same of you. So stay here and be happy with us.:_

Demon closed his eyes and refused to respond.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid… Stop talking like he's dead! He's not dead! He's not…_

_ …I promise that I'll never call you Whisker Face ever again if you come back._

* * *

Fate, destiny, the whims of the gods—could be cruel just as often as it could be kind. Shion had experience with both sides of the yin-yang. Visions her mother had had led to young Shion leaving Astral Town and the temple dedicated to psychic majuu and traveling to Trinity City and the Fire Temple where she was alone, friendless, and very out-of-place. The divine gift of Kogane had given her a place in this temple that was so alien to her; when the celestial vulpix had hatched, she had chosen Shion to be her special companion and caretaker.

Shion paced the temple's underground library—the largest single room in the entire complex—deep in thought as she reflected on the days' events. Normally she would meditate on her day in her small, bare quarters and write down the results in her journal. But after her brush with death and the terrifying experience of having been in the presence of living, breathing demonic majuu intent on feasting upon her flesh, she was simply too jittery to sit still and properly meditate.

_There is a reason—a meaning—behind everything that happens. There are consequences to every choice. …So what about today?_

There was no doubt in her mind that Naruto's loss had something to do with his misuse of a celestial majuu. And perhaps his was a sacrifice necessary to allow her to survive and warn of the Demons return. But it didn't seem quite fair—the consequences for his actions didn't seem to match up.

_It really wasn't his fault that he did what he did—he is from a culture where combat between majuu is glorified to a barbaric extreme. He didn't seem to be deliberately cruel, and was at least open to listening to how people and majuu live here in Demon Country. Only a monstrous criminal would really deserve to die by Demons feasting upon their living bodies and that boy was no criminal by any country's law._

Still, she was very relieved—a selfish relief—that he was the one carried off as lunch and she was the one who had been spared.

_Does that make me a horrible person?_

Sensing the turbulent path of her thoughts, Esper rubbed his head against her leg in a comforting gesture.

"Thank you," Shion said softly, rubbing between the espeon's ears. "I don't know what I would've done if you and Naty and Casey and Naito hadn't come here with me…"

"Oh, there you are!"

Shion swallowed a sigh and schooled her face into a polite expression before turning to greet Akira. He was an acolyte—a lesser member of the temple who was training to become a full priest (or priestess)—several years her senior, and a person she found…distasteful. He was handsome, but arrogant, and his combusken companion emulated him far too much.

"Am I needed for anything?" Shion asked.

"No, no," he smiled. "I merely wished to see how you were faring after staring down some Demons of the Underworld."

"Ah," she nodded in understanding while she mentally cringed.

This was not the sort of attention she wished for—she wanted to be respected as a priestess, not be known simply for surviving evil Demons.

"Also, did you hear that the police were here?" Akira inquired.

"No, what did they want?"

The older teen smirked. "They wanted to know if the temple thought it was a good idea to go down the Gateway to see if that foreign boy might still be alive. The Elders said no, of course. I don't know why they even bothered asking. There's only horrible death to be found down there. Everyone knows that."

"People like to hope," Shion shrugged slightly. "They want to believe that a child might survive instead of dying long before his time."

"Maybe," Akira replied. "At least we gain that celestial vulpix that he had in his possession. Now _two_ celestial majuu reside here! The last time that that happened was nearly a century ago, and then they had been of different species. The Water and Grass Temples are going to be so jealous of us!" He chuckled. "The Grass Temple only has a celestial oddish right now, and the Water Temple has _nothing_!"

"That's nothing that we should care about," Shion frowned. "Our only concern is to serve the temple and its aims: protecting majuu and the balance of nature and promoting harmony."

"I know, I know," he snorted. "But it _is_ an impressive thing to have two celestial of the same species alive at the same time."

Shion chewed at her lip. "What if…some of his family come to claim it?"

"Like the priests would ever give up a celestial to non-spiritual foreigners," Akira scoffed. "They'll make sure that this vulpix is too attached to the Fire Temple to ever leave. I've already heard whispers about what the rename him."

"And what about the Demons?" Shion asked. "Have you heard what is to be done about their return?"

"The Elders are meeting with the other temples tonight," he said. "They want to send word to the Rock Temple and Ground Temple in Quarry City for help from their majuu. Since the Three Guardians used _earthquake_ to seal the Underworld off from the surface, it should work again. Don't you think so?"

"Yes, that sounds like it would be a solution." Shion brushed some white-blonde hair behind one ear. "What should we do until help comes, though? It will surely take time for help to come from Quarry City."

"Stay indoors and keep our eyes open for Demons," Akira answered. "The police will warn the city's citizens to do the same. What else can we do?"

Shion had to agree with that. "Well, thank you for sharing the temple gossip with me."

"No problem at all!" he grinned.

"…Well, I think I need to go meditate now," she said. "Good bye."

The pale-haired girl hurried from the library with Esper.

_I need to go and pray that no one else will die…_

* * *

Kushina tapped her pen against the countertop in a rapid-fire rhythm. The ticking of the wall clock was horribly loud and maddening. And then she cracked…again.

"Are you _sure_ that he's okay?"

"Yes," the professor replied patiently, even though she'd asked the same question a good twenty times already. "I've looked into it as thoroughly as I can. The earthquake was barely above minor, the damage was minimal, the injuries were few and superficial, and there were no deaths. Naruto is fine. The public phone lines are just down, and they should be functioning again within the week."

The red-haired woman pouted. "…Alright."

"If you are really worried, I'll give you the time off so you can go and see for yourself," the elderly Sarutobi offered.

"No, no, I shouldn't," Kushina muttered, fidgeting with the ends of her hair. "He's getting to be a big boy now. He doesn't need his mother swooping in to fuss over him when nothing's wrong."

The old man puffed on his pipe. "Did you suggest Demon Country to him? Not many trainers from Fire Country bother to go there."

"It always looked like an interesting place to go…but there were never any gyms or battle tournaments to draw me in so I never went," Kushina grumbled. "So I dared Naruto to go. I was kind of curious about what the people there might say about Demon, too."

"Ah, I see," the professor nodded and turned back to his stack of research books and papers. "Try to relax. In a few days the phone lines will be back up over there and he'll call and you'll see that he's perfectly fine."

"Alright," Kushina nodded. "I just have this feeling…" she muttered to herself as she went back to madly tapping her pen. "A horrible feeling that he's not fine at all…"

* * *

_"Eeeee!"_

Naruto desperately squeezed himself deeper into the crevice to avoid the grasping claws and snapping teeth that kept trying to dig him out and eat him.

_This sucks, this sucks, this sucks!_

First he'd gotten Demons mixed up with that other vulpix, Kogane. Then he'd been kidnapped by aerodactyl and dragged underground, losing his goggles in the process. And now he was a hair away from being lunch.

At least he'd managed to get away and hide. The aerodactyl had kept flying until the cave tunnels got too narrow and they crashed into each other. While they were snapping at each other he'd slipped out of the straps of his backpack and found a tiny place to retreat into. The fossil monsters hadn't noticed his escape at first and spent a few minutes chewing on his bag. But once they found how bad that tasted, they sniffed around, found him, and were currently making his life very unpleasant.

_They've been at this for a while…aren't they sick of trying to get me yet?_

As if to answer his silent question one of the aerodactyl slipped its long, spade-tipped tail into the crevice to try and sweep him out.

_I should never have come to Demon Country!_


	8. Part VIII

**Gold and Silver**

_Part VIII_

It was impossible to tell how long he'd been down there. It was almost pitch black underground and there was no sunlight to judge the passage of time by. But it had definitely been several hours and Naruto was stiff and starving.

The assaults from the aerodactyl were slowing down. The fossil monsters were only digging into the crevice after him every ten minutes or so instead of constantly. They still hadn't given up on him, though.

_C'mon…I have to pee!_

Just as the beginnings of real despair started to settle over him, things grew quiet. There were no more grasping claws, snapping jaws, or flailing tails shoved in to his deep crevice to get him. Wary of some kind of trick, Naruto stayed put and listened hard to make absolutely certain that the aerodactyl had gone before risked sticking his head out into the open.

Moving very, very slowly, the boy crawled to the crack opening and cautiously peeked out. It was just as dark outside of the crack as it was inside, so he really didn't see anything but vague shapes in different shades of black. But he heard nothing—no growling, no slithering scales on rock, no breathing beyond his own—so he groped around for a good place to relieve his bladder, and once that was done he felt around for his pack.

_Oh man…_

There were teeth holes all over it. The bag hadn't been torn that much, and with a little reorganizing he could probably minimize anything falling out of it. But the backpack was trashed; he'd need to buy a new one before escaping from Demon Country.

Feeling glum, he dug out a few energy bars and chewed on them while he sorted through his stuff. He was low on just about everything. He hadn't restocked on food or medicines because he'd planned on relying on restaurants and pokémon centers for a week-long stay in Trinity City. So all he had was a water bottle and a bag of trail mix to last him until he could figure a way out of this dark, maze-like cave.

_This really sucks…_

But there was no point in sitting there, stewing over his misfortune. He found his flashlight (as Bolt was away, and couldn't just use _flash_ instead) and used its light to carefully re-pack his bag. Once he was sure that all his stuff was arranged so that it wouldn't pop out the puncture holes, he stood up and tried to decide which way he'd been dragged so that he could double-back to the Gateway.

_Left or right?_ he mused. _Crap…I can't tell._

He thought about flipping a coin to decide—

Something brushed against his pant leg and he nearly screamed as he whirled around to shine his flashlight on the thing.

His first impression was that it was a hubcap with legs. Its head was shiny and smooth metal, sort of like a hubcap but oblong instead of perfectly circular. Its body was small and tan and it crouched close to the ground on four legs.

"…A shieldon?!" Naruto hissed in disbelief. "What is this cave—a dumping ground for disobedient revived fossils?!"

The shieldon seemed frozen by the beam of his flashlight and Naruto decided to try and catch it. Shieldon were incredibly hard to come by—reviving fossils was expensive, breeding extinct pokémon wasn't much cheaper, and trading for one would be a hard trade to make—so this was too good of a chance to pass up. Without any pokémon to weaken his target it would be a very hard catch to make, but pokémon caught in safari games this way all the time so it could be done…

Naruto grabbed one of his great-balls and made the throw. The shieldon disappeared into the ball and the great-ball wiggled and wiggled. For a moment Naruto dared hope that it would work—

_POP-CRACK!_

The shieldon busted free and fled with a terrified grunt, leaving behind shards of the ruined great-ball.

"Crud," Naruto pouted as he picked up the bits of metal and plastic so he wouldn't get in trouble for littering.

_Today is just not my day._

Sighing, he shone his flashlight up at the cave roof in the hopes of startling some zubats. The bat monsters could be fairly weak, were rather simple-minded, and were easy to tame. If he could catch one, its _supersonic_ could help map out the cave around him so he could find the exit faster.

But there were no zubats, or golbats, or _anything_. That was really weird. Zubats loved caves and he'd never heard of one that didn't host the bat monsters.

"Hmm…"

Another thing brushed against his legs and Naruto turned his attention downwards, wondering if the shieldon had decided to come back—

There were two pokémon this time, and neither of them was a shieldon. They were gray bipedal lizards with thick, blue, dome-shaped craniums. Looking at them made him think of dinosaurs.

"Cranidos?!"

The hard-headed pokémon growled at him, and then one charged. Naruto yelped and staggered out of the way. If one of those supposedly extinct creatures managed to crash into him he risked broken legs or at least a concussion from being knocked down.

"Hey! Hey knock it off!"

But they didn't knock it off. The two cranidos took turns rushing him with lowered heads. They drove him down the tunnel like they were defending their turf…or something.

_Geeze, everybody's out to get me!_

Naruto took off running, constantly glancing over his shoulder to see if they were still chasing him—

"Oof!"

He tripped over something soft and squishy and jarred his palms and knees badly as he struggled to break his fall. The jolt almost killed his flashlight, leaving the beam flickering from dim to bright. Rolling over to sit and stare behind him, he lifted his flashlight to see—

"Shiitake!"

The shroomish blinked at him and spat Naruto's lost goggles out of his mouth at the boy's feet.

The cranidos were still charging, and closing fast.

"Shiitake, _stun spore_!" he gestured frantically at the cranidos. "_Stun spore_!"

The peach and green mushroom obediently turned and sprayed the brownish paralyzing spores from the opening at the top of its head. The cranidos skidded to a halt in the cloud and shivered as the spores started to take hold. Crying in confusion and fear, the two pokémon stumbled away, furiously rubbing at themselves to try and get the spores off.

"That was close," the boy sighed as he sagged in relief. "So," he asked the mushroom, "where is everybody else?"

Shiitake just stared blankly back at him.

"…They aren't coming," Naruto said to himself. "Crap."

Having one of his pokémon back with him was better than nothing, but…why not a different one? Shiitake was one of his weakest pokémon—the weakest that he had on hand. Demon was much stronger and his fire could provide some light and warmth. Shadow could also provide some light and was an excellent protector. Typhoon was big and powerful and would be incredibly helpful in escaping. And Sandy could _dig_ and _fly_.

_Oh well, beggars can't be choosers…_

"Alright Shiitake," Naruto muttered as he scooped up his goggles from the ground, "Let's get the heck out of here…"

* * *

"We're never going to get out of here!" Naruto moaned as he clutched the empty packet of trail mix in his hand.

He kept trying to backtrack to the Gateway where he'd been dragged in, but he was constantly interrupted, chased around, and now he was thoroughly lost. First it had been the cranidos, then it had been a vicious kabutops (who was nowhere near as cool as Slasher), then a cave pool full of omanyte that had tried to swarm him, then a bastiodon had tried to trample him, and then an anorith had dropped onto his head and clung there until he started banging his head against a rock wall. And the whole time he'd worried about the aerodactyl reappearing and trying to eat him.

The twisting cave tunnels were winding and confusing. They would widen or narrow unexpectedly, branch into two or three or more different tunnels, and dead-end into chambers of widely varying sizes. Some stretches were dimly lit by some weird glowing cave fungus, but most of the vast cave system was dark, giving no hint as to the time of day—Naruto only had found that it was nighttime by checking his wristwatch.

After spending a very uncomfortable "night" tucked away in another narrow crevice where nothing could reach him or Shiitake while he slept, he'd eaten his trail mix breakfast and now here he was…

…Wherever that was.

Naruto slumped against one of the cave wall and fiddled with his flashlight, which he kept off to preserve its precious battery life. He listened to all the faint echoes that drifted through the dank cave air while Shiitake sat by his side. Nothing seemed close by and threatening, but that could change in an instant.

_This place…it's crawling with pokémon that are supposed to be extinct. There's way more there than would ever been abandoned, or allowed to escape from some lab. They're used to making their way around in the dark. It's like…they've always lived here._

What if some prehistoric pokémon had hidden down in these caves when some kind of catastrophe had wiped out all the rest? They had air, water, and food down here, it could be possible. If there were enough of them to breed, then…they could last forever underground.

_…They're the "demons" from that Shion girl's story,_ Naruto realized. _There's a prehistoric species down here that matches everything that she said the demons were like—tentacles, hard shells, claws like blades, and bat-like wings. These caves must've been sealed, and when that earthquake unsealed them, they came out looking for food. And now…it's happening again._

_Man this sucks._

"…Well, we're not going to get anywhere just by sitting here," Naruto muttered.

Laying down and dying seemed like an awful way to go. If he had to die, he'd much rather die doing something. And if he had the choice, he'd much rather not die now.

The blond-haired boy slowly dragged himself to his feet and started walking with Shiitake following after him. It didn't matter which way he went; he had no idea where he was or where he needed to go. So long as kept walking, there was some chance that he'd find a way out.

That's what he hoped, anyway.

He kept his flashlight off and one hand on the wall to keep his bearings. As he walked he felt around with his foot before stepping to keep from tripping. And he listened, both to keep track of Shiitake and to avoid running into anything that was mean and wanted to eat them.

The wall suddenly disappeared from under his hand and Naruto immediately came to a halt. They'd come into a chamber, probably the largest he'd come across so far. It was lit by the weird glowing fungus, so he could sort of see the massive space. He judged it to be big enough to hold the entire Fire Temple inside of it and still have some room leftover.

_Whoa…_

A harsh screeching cry grabbed Naruto's attention and had him ducking back into the tunnel for some cover. He could see dark shapes soaring around the high roof of the cave chamber and he shivered. With the poor light Naruto couldn't count all the aerodactyl, but there were definitely more than three of them.

One of them suddenly dove down, there was a splash, and then it glided over to a spot where there was a dense patch of the glowing fungus with something alive and struggling in its mouth. Naruto watched in morbid fascination as the silhouette of the aerodactyl tore apart its prey. It took a minute for the boy to identify the prey as an omastar…that was still feebly wiggling as it was eaten.

_Oh gross!_ He shuddered and looked away as other aerodactyl dove to catch their food.

It made sense, though. What else could they eat? The plant-eaters probably ate the fungus and whatever other cave slimes there were. And the predator pokémon would eat them. If they didn't eat, they would starve and die.

Naruto gulped and started to creep back the way that he'd come before he was noticed and joined the other prehistoric aquatic pokémon—

An explosion of shrieking halted his retreat. Some of the aerodactyl were squabbling over something. The cavern was briefly lit in flashes of _thunder fangs_ and _fire fangs_ as the fossil pokémon lashed out at each other. The whole flock of them got stirred up and their piercing cries echoed and echoed and made Naruto wish that he was deaf.

Whatever ended the fight, Naruto couldn't see. But the ancient flyers dispersed, flying through tunnels to some other place in the caves. Naruto hit the deck, pinning Shiitake underneath him, as several chose to dive down the tunnel he was hiding in. They seemed to miss him, and for that he was immensely relieved.

_That was way too close…_

When he felt it was safe to move, Naruto slunk into the chamber. As the aerodactyl had just left it, it would be a good place to hide for a little while. And there was water in that cavern, and his water bottle was almost empty.

"I wonder what that was all about," the boy muttered.

Shiitake said nothing. The shroomish wasn't talkative normally; he was far more interested in fighting anything and everything. But he'd been more quiet than usual and Naruto was getting a bit worried. The little mushroom was young and low-level, and it was hard down here.

_He's a grass-type, so…maybe it's the lack of sunlight?_

The pool of water wasn't that hard to find in the cavern, much to Naruto's relief. When he tested it on his tongue, he found it wasn't too mineral-y and filled his empty bottle with it. While Shiitake drank from the small underground lake the boy stood up and stretched—

_"Hisssss…"_

Naruto yelped, spun around, and flipped on his flashlight…to find that there was still one aerodactyl left behind. It was crouched barely a yard away from them, hovering over whatever it had been eating. When the beam of the flashlight hit it, it only hissed louder.

"…Oh shit."

The prehistoric beast snarled and stalked forward.

"Shiitake, _leech seed_!"

The shroomish instantly leapt into action and fired a seed at his foe…only for the aerodactyl to swat it aside with its wing before the energy-sapping sprout could take hold.

"_Spore_!" Naruto yelped as he backpedaled into the lake to avoid the rapidly advancing beast. "Put it to sleep!"

Shiitake sucked in air to blast out the powerful sleeping spores, but was struck by the aerodactyl's lashing tail and the little mushroom bounced off into the darkness.

"Jerk!" Naruto growled, and blinded the monster with his flashlight while he squirted water from his water bottle into the rock beast's face. "Take that!"

The aerodactyl howled and backed off for a moment, rubbing at its face with the claws on its wings. Naruto hurried out of the ankle-deep water and backed away from the predator keeping his flashlight on it while he tried to find his shroomish. His sneakers made squishing sounds with every step and the already slick rocks got even slicker with the water on his shoes.

"Shiitake?" he called out, his voicing echoing numerous times in the vast cavern.

The little mushroom stormed out of the darkness, steaming mad, and _headbutt_-ed the aerodactyl, sending off a puff of dust with the hit. The raging fossil pokémon immediately tried to _bite_ the grass pokémon, but its lunge was slow and uncoordinated. And then it sat like it was frozen as its rock skin shivered. It acted like it was paralyzed.

_It has to be __**effect spore**_, Naruto realized. _Lucky for us. But it won't stay frozen forever…_

The boy dropped his water bottle and reached into his pocket. Grabbing the first capsule he could feel, he expanded it and threw it before the sharp-toothed beast managed a brief spell of mobility. The aerodactyl was sucked into the sphere and, within a minute, was successfully captured.

"I'm glad that's over," Naruto sighed as he walked over to collect his newest acquisition. "Aw, I used my dusk-ball… I was saving that." Shrugging, he attached it to his belt and turned his flashlight to what it had been eating. "Ew…I think that was a lileep." Turning away from the gory remains, Naruto picked up his water bottle and looked to Shiitake. "We'd better get moving. The other aerodactyl may have heard…Shiitake?"

The shroomish was trembling, and then consumed by light. The shape of the monster changed and expanded. And then the light was gone and the mushroom monster was drastically transformed.

It looked sort of like a dinosaur, or perhaps a kangaroo. It had little arms tipped in red claws and long red-clawed feet. It had a long tail tipped in round seed pods and a mushroom cap on its head almost like a hat.

Naruto slowly grinned at the breloom. "Alright, Shiitake!"

The fighting plant looked down at its new hands, fascinated.

"But still, we should move someplace else," the boy decided. "With all that noise, something's bound to come to investigate. Come on!"

* * *

Naruto slunk through the tunnels until he found a small dead-end chamber that didn't have any prehistoric pokémon living in it. He took a little time to relax and think while Shiitake munched on a bit of pokémon food. And then he got down to business.

Taming a wild pokémon could be a tricky business, especially with the more powerful and predatory types. And taming a wild aerodactyl that hadn't been born in a lab would be especially difficult as it wouldn't care about the hand that fed it and would enjoy biting it. But Naruto had to try if he wanted any serious chance of escaping this Underworld.

_This shouldn't be too much different than taming a wild gyarados,_ he thought as he fingered the dusk-ball. _I need it to see me as dominant and powerful, and I need it to submit to me before I try anything else with it. Shiitake can back me up if I need it, but I have to be the one that is The Boss…_

"Okay, Shiitake, you sit over there and wait for my orders," he said, gesturing to a corner of the chamber. "No matter what happens, you wait until I call for you."

The breloom saluted him and went to sit where Naruto had pointed.

_Now for the hard part…_

Naruto stuck a _full heal_ potion in his pocket, set up his flashlight so that it illuminated most of the chamber, gathered his nerve, and opened the dusk-ball.

The aerodactyl reappeared, still trembling in paralysis, and very upset. Its eyes rolled around before focusing on Naruto with an angry yet fearful glare. The monster had no experience with humans or their technology and was understandably spooked by its capture. Naruto stared right back, burying any fear he felt deep down, and stood firm, trying to look as big and tough as possible.

"You will listen to me now," Naruto said, slowly and firmly. "I have defeated you, and you must serve me."

With a hiss the aerodactyl tried to _bite_ him, but its status problem made it slow and clumsy and Naruto smacked its nose before grabbing its stubby horns and forcing its head down to the cave floor. His arms trembled with the effort of forcing the mighty beast into a submissive position but he refused to let up. Any sign of weakness now would badly sabotage what he was trying to accomplish. In his situation, he couldn't afford any setbacks.

"I am the boss now; I am the leader," Naruto said around clenched teeth. "You do not bite the leader."

The fossil pokémon tried to struggle a bit more before it gave in and laid prone on the cave floor. It didn't stop glaring at him, though, so Naruto refused to back off. He kept staring at the predator until it looked away and completely gave in…for the moment, anyway.

"Good." He thought of the aerodactyl's large, knife-like teeth, and was inspired. "From now on, you are Ginsu. I am Naruto Uzumaki, and I am the boss. You are Ginsu, and you are _not_ the boss."

The aerodactyl didn't seem to accept what Naruto had said, but it didn't protest it either, which was acceptable.

"Now, since you are behaving well, I will reward you."

Naruto slowly removed the spray medicine from his pocket and spritzed it all over the rocky hide of the aerodactyl. The creature hissed at the contact, but once the potion started working it seemed amazed. Finding that it was no longer restricted by paralysis, the aerodactyl watched the boy intently and warily.

"That feels better, now doesn't it?" He was careful not to smile; pokémon who had little experience with humans mistook smiles for signs of aggression. "If you behave and do as I say, I will make sure that you are well taken care of."

Ginsu had no other reaction that to keep watching him.

"Shiitake, come here."

The breloom immediately bounded to his side, and the fossil pokémon eyed it hungrily.

"Shiitake is not food!" Naruto scolded, smacking the aerodactyl's nose again. "Shiitake is my subordinate. He is not for eating!"

The aerodactyl flinched and looked away from the warrior mushroom.

"Good. Here is what you are going to do for me, Ginsu. You are going to lead me out of these caves." Naruto shoved the empty _full heal_ bottle into his bag and picked up his flashlight while still holding the prehistoric pokémon still with his stare. "Now show me where these caves end."

Ginsu very slowly slunk around the boy and breloom and crept back to the main complex of tunnels, glancing over its shoulder every now and then to see if Naruto and Shiitake were still back there.

_Now we're getting somewhere! _

_ …I think._

_ I hope._


	9. Part IX

**Gold and Silver**

_Part IX_

Shion shivered and tightly gripped the basket that she carried as she accompanied senior priests Raito and Torimaru and their companions (a ponyta and a numel), senior priestess Ren, Inari-sama, Kogane, and the majuu still known as Demon. With the news that the Demons were loose, Trinity City had become choked with fear. No one went outside unless they absolutely had to, leaving the bustling urban center nearly a ghost town. The very idea that the creatures that were used to frighten children into obedience were real and loose in the area was terrifying.

The party from the Fire Temple headed towards the central square, a wide-open space at the center of the city where the fountain monument to the Three Guardians was located. There they would meet high ranking priests from the Water and Grass Temples to compare notes and coordinate their response to the return of the Demons. To avoid any argument or conflict over where meetings involving all three temples should be conducted, representatives would always travel to the fountain, and even during such dangerous times there was never any thought to meet anywhere else.

They came to the end of the road and Shion couldn't help but admire the square. It was a vast, paved space decorated with trees and enormous stone pots filled with flowers. At the center of the cobblestone-paved area was an immense fountain—tiers of misting water that rose up from its artificial pool like a primitive pyramid. And at the edges of the circular fountain pool, each positioned in the direction of the proper temple, were marble statues of the Three Guardians: Kaminami, Kamihana, and Gingitsune.

Waiting by the fountain pool, Shion could see the representatives from the other temples. They were easily distinguishable from each other by the colors of their traditional clothing (blue for the Water Temple and green for the Grass Temple) and the majuu that were in their company. Shion clutched the handle of the basket which contained both Kogane and Demon a little tighter as they approached the cluster of people and majuu.

While the senior priests greeted one another, Shion couldn't help but notice the celestial oddish (it was bright green with yellow-green leaves) that was carried in a basket by a young acolyte of the Grass Temple (a boy slightly older than her, who looked just as out of place as she felt). The next majuu she took notice of were the empoleon and the meganium, descendants of the mighty Kaminami and Kamihana. Both were younger than Inari-sama, but they showed their age much more clearly than the ninetales did. Shion was rather surprised that the meganium was still standing, let alone able to walk all the way out to the fountain without help with how elderly and frail it appeared.

_I feel bad for them,_ Shion thought as the priests and priestesses began to discuss the situation. _Until younger relatives transform into their final states, that meganium and that empoleon can't retire and rest. And should they die without a ready successor…_

_The Fire Temple is fortunate that ninetales are naturally blessed with incredible lifespans,_ the girl decided. _There is no fear that Inari-sama will suddenly die without another ninetales ready to take up her position. And all that is needed for a vulpix to become a ninetales is a __**fire stone**__. The only difficulty would be in deciding which vulpix is ready for the stone's power._

Kogane wouldn't be a candidate for ascension to ninetales for several years at least. She was far too young and unruly to handle the transformation well. The boost in power that the stone would give her would only magnify her problems.

_I wonder…what would a celestial ninetales look like?_

A sudden scraping sound interrupted the discussion between the priests. The sound repeated; the sound of something heavy being moved over stone—

"Over there!" the boy with the celestial oddish said, pointing to a metal manhole cover. "It moved!"

And it did move. It wriggled, jostled, and then slid aside, bit by bit. Once the cover was completely shoved out of the way, a huge curved blade emerged into the sunlight, shortly followed by a brown, armored monster.

It was a bipedal crustacean creature, with large scythe blades at the ends of its arms. It blinked its eyes in the bright sunlight and shook its broad flat head. While it crouched by the hole, other things started creeping out into the light.

The smaller things were like brown river rocks with legs and glowing eyes underneath their shells. They skittered around like crabs, also seemingly affected by the sunlight. But they adjusted quickly and soon they were attacking the flower pots, devouring the greenery like locusts. And more and more of them scrabbled out of the dark storm drain.

"Demons," one of the priests breathed in shock as they all watched. "More demons."

His words seemed to draw the attention of the scythe demon. It immediately turned from contemplating the flowering bushes to staring at them. With a hiss, it raised its blade arms menacingly and advanced on them.

_Oh no,_ Shion thought as she stood, frozen. _Not again…_

Inari-sama—as the most fit and powerful majuu there—reacted immediately and tossed it back with the power of _extrasensory_. The scythe demon skidded backwards but regained its footing quickly and responded with redoubled aggression. It made a screeching sound, clashed its scythes together a few times, and then charged at full speed.

"Inari!" Priestess Ren cried. "Please drive these Demons back to the Underworld!"

The ninetales instantly obeyed, lashing out with another blast of psychic power. The nine-tailed fox tried to force it back down the hole that it had crawled out of, but more demons were climbing up to the surface. Other scythe demons were on the scene now, and the smaller crab-like demons were distracted from devouring plants by the struggle. The demons retaliated against Inari with their blades and with blasts of water.

"Mizudori," one of the Water Priests pleaded, "please try and shield Inari."

The elderly empoleon hobbled over to try and provide the ninetales with some protection from the water, but it was too slow to be anything other than a hindrance. The meganium attempted to assist with a _razor leaf_ attack, but the leaves it produced were dull and weren't able to fly far enough to strike any foes. And still more demons clambered out of the storm drain to join the fight.

"There are too many," one of the Grass Priests—a younger man cradling a shivering budew in his arms—muttered. "We will be overrun."

There had to be at least twenty demons involved now, and Inari's flames and _extrasensory_ pushes were barely keeping them busy. As powerful as the ninetales was, her power was not infinite. Soon she would tire and be just as useless as the aged meganium and empoleon.

And still more demons appeared.

A new kind was arriving now. They were blue with tiny tentacles, huge eyes, and large spiral shells. The squid-ish demons slithered over the ground and added their own water blasts to those of the scythe demons and crab demons.

Inari-sama tried to hide behind the bulk of the empoleon, but still she was getting wet.

Shaking, Shion set down the basket and removed Demon from it. She set the _blue scarf_-wearing celestial vulpix on the cobblestones and knelt before him.

"Please," she pleaded as she trembled. "You were taught to fight. Please, please help Inari-sama drive these evil majuu away."

Demon stared at her…and then turned away in refusal.

"What?!" she squeaked.

Why wouldn't he fight? He'd seemed so aggressive the day before, and he'd been trained to fight, taught to love to fight. He should be eager to battle, eager to avenge the misguided boy who had captured him.

"Why won't you—"

Shion glanced up to see one of the crab-like demons skittering towards her. If jumped towards her face—

The gaping jaws of a gyarados closed around the demon, shook it, and then flung it away.

The pale-haired girl gaped at mighty water monster and wondered when it had arrived and how the lost boy—Naruto's gyarados had escaped from the temporary capsule the police had put it in.

"Great catch, Raze!" a girl's voice shouted. "_Bite_ some more!"

Shion looked towards the voice and found a girl perched on a stone bench. She had dark brown hair tied up in a pair of buns and dark brown eyes. The mystery girl was dressed in loose black pants and a pale blue Chinese-styled top with wide sleeves and black fingerless gloves on her hands. She was clearly a foreigner and wore a dusty backpack on her shoulders and a belt for carrying monster capsules.

"Katana," the girl called out, "lay 'em low with _leaf blade_!"

The temple girl looked back to the main battle where Inari-sama had been struggling against the demons to find that other majuu had appeared on the battlefield.

There was a sceptile slashing out with glowing blades sprouting from its wrists. There was a burning blaziken throwing painful punches into whatever demon tried to cross it. There was a lucario that sliced into the demons with powerful _metal claw_ attacks. There was a hulking swampert that attacked the demons with water and mud. And there was a muscular poliwrath that shifted between punching the demons and battering them with bruising water strikes.

_Where…where did they all come from?!_

These majuu were fighters, not temple creatures. They worked together under the direction of the girl, and two boys that she belatedly noticed—one stood by the statue of Gingitsune, the other stood in a ruined stone flower pot. The demons crumbled under this unexpected assault and after a few minutes they began to flee back down the uncovered storm drain.

And then there was only one left, one of the scythe demons, perhaps it was the first one that had appeared. It limped towards the safety of the dark hole, but the sceptile blocked its way. While the two stared each other down, the girl with the buns hurled a capturing capsule at it…_and caught it_.

"Yatta!" the girl squealed as the sphere vanished in a flash of light. "I got it!"

"Why would you do that?!" one of the Water Priests sputtered.

"Uh…" The bun girl jammed her hands into her pockets. "Because I wanted it?"

"Why would you desire a demon?" the older Grass Priest asked with a deep frown.

"Demon?" The foreign girl looked puzzled. "What demon? I caught a kabutops just now… That's not against the law, is it?"

"…No," the Grass Acolyte with the celestial oddish answered hesitantly.

"So what's the problem, then?" the foreign girl wondered. "You clearly didn't want it around, and I just love those scythe blades! I always dreamed of getting a kabutops, but I never ever imagined that I'd actually get one! Ah, I'm so happy!"

Shion stared at her, horrified. That demon would have gladly devoured them, and she was _happy_ to have it? Who was this girl?

"Yosh!" the boy with the bowl-cut cheered, pumping his bandage-wrapped fist. "Tenten, your fires of Youth burn brightly! Gai-sensei would be so proud!"

This boy was, if anything, stranger than the girl—Tenten. Aside from the bowl-cut, he had large, round eyes and a strange manner of speaking. He was wearing a green karate _gi_ and…and it looked like he was wearing some kind of green spandex suit underneath. The swampert and the poliwrath seemed to belong to him and pumped their fists along with the strange fighter boy.

"Are you alright?"

Shion flinched and tore her eyes away from the boy in green to find that the Tenten girl had approached her, along with the gyarados and the sceptile.

"Oh, oh yes, yes I'm fine." The temple girl hurriedly stood from her kneeling position. "Thank you for your assistance."

"No problem," the girl with the buns grinned. "We were glad to—hey, look at that!" Tenten caught sight of Demon, who was curled up on the cobblestones as if asleep, and then she spied Kogane peeking out of the basket. "Two of them even! Lee, Neji, come over here!"

The two boys immediately came over to see what had gotten their female companion so excited.

"Look!" the girl almost bounced with excitement. "Two shiny vulpix, just like that other one we saw."

_Another?_ Shion blinked. _There is a __**third**__ celestial vulpix somewhere out there?_

"You are right!" the boy in green exclaimed. "They look just like Naruto-kun's vulpix!"

Shion's heart sank. _Oh…_

Demon stirred, looked up at the three newcomers for a moment, and then leapt up to latch his teeth into the bowl-cut boy's green sleeve and dangled from it.

"Huh," Tenten snorted. "This one even acts like Naruto's Demon."

"It is Demon," Shion had to admit. "He belonged to a boy called Naruto."

The three young foreigners stared at her, but it was the other boy—the boy with the long brown hair, pale eyes, and dressed in an off-white _gi_-like outfit—who spoke.

"Where is Naruto Uzumaki?"

* * *

Neji quietly sipped at a cup of tea as he knelt before a low table with his companions, a Fire Temple acolyte named Shion, and an elderly priestess named Kaede. He, Lee, and Tenten had been brought to the Fire Temple to learn the fate of one Naruto Uzumaki. They were not pleased with what they heard.

"So you just abandoned him?!" Tenten sputtered. "You prevented his own pokémon from trying to help him?!"

Shion flinched. "He had been dragged down into the Underworld; there was no saving him. If his majuu were allowed to chase after him, they would be devoured as well, and could draw out more Demons."

"You don't know that!" Tenten barked.

"It was a mistake on her part," Kaede, the grandmotherly priestess, said quietly. "Shion is young and inexperienced. But what's done is done; there is no sense in raging at what cannot be changed."

Lee jumped to his feet, a determined look etched into his face. "Kaede-sama, please tell us how we may enter this Underworld so that we may go and rescue Naruto-kun!"

"It's been over a day," Shion frowned. "Even if he wasn't consumed immediately, he is surely dead by now."

"I do not believe that!" Lee declared. "I will not believe that until there is proof!"

"I would tell you how to get to the Underworld," Kaede said, causing Shion to gasp. "But there are no maps of the caves, they have never been explored, and for good reason. The majuu that we call Demons dwell there; that is their domain. Fighting them down there is not like how it is fighting them up here. Cave tunnels can be cramped and narrow, and it is always dark. In good conscience, I cannot tell you the way." The old woman gently stroked the fluffy flareon that rested in her lap. "If your friend is still alive down there, he will have to find his way back under his own power. I am very sorry."

Neji fingered his teacup, but said nothing. He found the old woman's logic to be sound. If they journeyed down to the caves they would be at a disadvantage, even with the protection of their pokémon. In dark caves with no maps, they could easily become lost, and then there were unknown numbers of cave pokémon and prehistoric pokémon to worry about.

But even though he understood and agreed with the woman for denying them this information, he did not like it.

Nor did Lee and Tenten.

"If you will not tell us, we will search for the way in," Lee decided.

"I will not stop you," the priestess replied, eliciting another gasp from Shion. "But you will not have an easy time. People are afraid. They will not tell you what you want to know."

"What will happen to Naruto's pokémon?" Tenten asked, her voice seeming unusually loud in the tense air.

"Tradition dictates that they will be sent to the nearest temple or shrine dedicated to their type and cared for until their dying days." Kaede explained. "Should relatives of the lost trainer come to claim the majuu, the majuu decide whether to stay with the temple or leave with the next of kin."

"That's not fair," Tenten frowned. "He's a citizen of Fire Country, not Demon Country. That's not how things are done where we are from."

"That may be, but you are in Demon Country, and our land is a land of deep tradition. The government will uphold whatever decisions are made by the temples and majuu involved." The old woman rubbed her flareon underneath its chin. "If you could convince the temple elders that young Naruto's family is good and will treasure his orphaned creatures, it will make things easier."

Tenten and Lee sagged a bit. Naruto was more of an acquaintance than anything. They had never met any of his family and knew nothing about his parents or anything.

"…We cannot delay," Lee said, and turned to leave. "Thank you for the tea, Kaede-sama—"

"One moment, please," the old priestess said. "As the meeting between temples was interrupted, there will be another this evening. If you would stay near the fountain between eight and nine o'clock, the priests would greatly appreciate it."

Lee hesitated before giving a sharp nod and exiting the room. Tenten bowed and followed him, but stopped when Neji failed to follow her.

"You coming, Neji?"

"I will follow shortly," he said, still nursing his cup of tea. "Go on without me."

"Alright," she muttered and chased after Lee.

The old woman studied him for a moment before turning to Shion. "Why don't you run along? Esper and the others have been waiting for you."

"Yes, Kaede-sama," the girl said, bowed, and withdrew, leaving Neji alone with the old woman.

"So, young man, what can I do for you?"

Neji set down the teacup and took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking.

"I was the one who chose to come to this land. I had hoped to find…clarity. But considering current events, I think that will have to wait."

The old priestess nodded. "I see…"

"There was a great deal about the fight by the fountain with the prehistoric pokémon that bothers me," Neji said after a pause. "The empoleon and the meganium were too elderly to fight, and the younger pokémon looked too cowardly to fight. Why were such old creatures the only ones trying?"

"Demon Country has been a very peaceful place for a very long time," the old woman replied. "And those of the temples always seek peace and harmony over conflict. So when a battle situation arises, young temple majuu are left unprepared and will not fight, which is why they seemed so cowardly to you. And temple majuu who need to gain battle experience to achieve a new form have a difficult time doing so with so little fighting going on, which is why the empoleon and meganium are so old; nothing has evolved to replace them so that they may retire."

"Must there always be an empoleon and a meganium in the temples?"

"Yes," Kaede nodded. "They are descendants of revered majuu, and in the upcoming Summer Victory Festival they play very important roles." The priestess sighed. "This sort of situation would never have happened in the old days."

"What was so different about the old days?" Neji politely inquired.

"In the most ancient of times, priests became priests by taming magical beasts," she explained. "Humans who could control such magical and unfathomable power were looked up to by the ordinary peasants. Humans and majuu did not live in harmony in those times, they competed for space and food. Only priests and priestesses knew how to live in harmony with them, and ask them to fight in defense of humans. In a way, they could be considered some of the first trainers.

"That was a very long time ago, though. People at large learned how better to live with majuu, and new technology made it possible for anyone to have their own magical beasts. The land became peaceful, and the temples focused more and more on peace and harmony at the expense of the old ways. Most young acolyte these days are never taught the oldest traditions—how to fight."

The old woman stroked her flareon and smiled a bitter smile.

"Perhaps that will be the good thing that comes out of this horrible situation. The Demons of the past will remind us of our true purpose: to protect and guide, not sit up on high and pass judgment."

_To protect and guide,_ Neji thought, _not sit up on high and pass judgment…_

In his mind's eye, he could easily see the aftermath of that fight—his cousin huddled over the battered, bruised, and limp body of her riolu while he and his lucario sneered at her weakness and ineptitude.

_To protect and guide…_


	10. Part X

**Gold and Silver**

_Part X_

Nothing made sense anymore. Food could fight back to defend itself, and sometimes even escape. But food didn't _win_. Food didn't become Flock Leader.

He'd always been warned to never play with or talk to his food…maybe this was why.

"No, this isn't the place. Try again."

The aerodactyl ground his teeth but—out of fear of what the mysterious and powerful food item might do—he turned away from the dead end chamber and slunk off in search of one that he hadn't visited yet.

The food-turned-leader had commanded that the aerodactyl take them to the end of the caves—the end of the world. So the aerodactyl had done so. But every dead end that they visited wasn't the right one.

_I am hungry…_

There was another bit of food with the Leader-Food. However, the green fungus-like thing was off-limits. Leader-Food valued Fungus-Food as a subordinate.

Stomach growling, he crawled through a narrow spot in the tunnel and paused at a three tunnel fork. Consulting his mental map, the aerodactyl determined that they had already exhausted two of the tunnels. The third tunnel still had a few dead ends that hadn't been visited yet.

_That way, then._

It was beyond him why the Leader-Food wanted to go to the end of the world. Sometimes food would nest at the end places of the world, but Leader-Food didn't seem interested in other food items. In fact, Leader-Food appeared to want to avoid other food items, which left the aerodactyl nothing to eat.

_I am hungry…_

He wondered where the Leader-Food and Fungus-Food had come from as he'd never seen food that looked like them before. There was Egg-Food, Carrion-Food, Plant-Food, Squid-Food, Shell-Food, Bug-Food, Lizard-Food, and Steel-Food, but nothing like Leader-Food or Fungus-Food. It was a real mystery. If he wasn't getting so hungry, he would've thought on it more.

Earlier in the tour of the ends of the world he'd considered turning around and eating the Leader-Food. But wariness and a healthy dose of fear kept him from trying it. Leader-Food had the power to shift him from the world to a small, inescapable space; the power to heal—powers unheard of. What else could the strange thing do to him?

It wasn't worth finding out. And besides, Leader-Food seemed to have assigned him a name. Only aerodactyl who had distinguished themselves and were distinctive had names, like Flock Leader Broken-Tooth, Flock Leader One-Eye, Half-Tail, No-Tongue, Scar-Nose, and Fat-Gut. A name meant power and importance.

But food had given him a name…did it still count?

A sound and a smell gave him pause. The aerodactyl sat and waited as Leader-Food and Fungus-Food stumbled into his back. Before they could utter any complaint, Flock Leader Broken-Tooth and his two companions—The Brothers—slunk out from a side tunnel, remains of their most recent meal dripping down their jaws.

The aerodactyl hesitated in submitting to the Flock Leader—his old Flock Leader. He had been subdued and recruited by a mysterious and powerful bit of food. Now that he was under the sway of a new Flock Leader, should he respect the old Flock Leader? Such a situation was unheard of, as members of The One Flock were never made to join The Other Flock (for there were only two in the world) and vice versa. You were born into one of the flocks, and you only left through death.

It was too late to make up his mind.

_:You!:_ Broken-Tooth hissed. _:Bow head!:_

_:Obey Flock Leader!:_ one Brother demanded.

_:Obey!:_ the other Brother echoed menacingly.

He hesitated.

"Ginsu, use _screech_!" Leader-Food whispered into his ear.

Without thinking, he opened his mouth and let out a horrible, high-pitched scream that echoed off the narrow rock walls, making it even harder on the ears. The sound made the other three aerodactyl cringe and greatly reduced their ability to defend themselves. And then Leader-Food was on his back and Fungus-Food was hanging on to his tail.

"Get past them!"

He scuttled forward, squeezing between The Brothers before they could react, and scampered down the tunnel with his two new flock-mates riding him.

"Shiitake, _spore_!"

The aerodactyl couldn't see what Fungus-Food did, he just kept hurrying down the tunnel. Broken-Tooth wasn't Flock Leader for nothing; he was powerful and mean. Disrespecting him could be the last thing an aerodactyl did before it became Carrion-Food.

He didn't want to be Carrion-Food.

The tunnel widened as went; widened enough for flight. He used intermittent pulses of _supersonic_ to get a feel for the tunnel ahead as he spread his wings to fly. It was a tricky thing to do, but by "seeing" with sound it was possible to fly in the dark, narrow tunnels of the world.

He rarely traveled this part of the tunnels; there was very little food to be found here. Many of the walls were unstable in this area and too much fighting could cause parts of the caves to collapse, making the world shrink. It was not a good place to go, and so he was unfamiliar with it.

The tunnel sloped upwards and widened bit by bit. Then the tunnel reached a very bright chamber where the floor was mostly a lake. The chamber had a very high ceiling, and so he spiraled upwards. The higher up he was, the greater advantage he would have when Flock Leader Broken-Tooth and The Brothers caught up with them.

_High ceiling…_ he thought as he continued rising. _Very high…_

And then the chamber opened up into an even bigger chamber. It was much brighter up here—more light than he had ever experienced in his life. There were colors he'd never seen—so many colors! Smells, sounds—where were the walls and ceilings and stones?!

It was all too much—too frightening—and so he pulled his wings in and started to dive back down to where it was familiar and safe—

"No, no, no! That way! Go that way!"

Leader-Food grabbed his head horns and forcibly turned his head, steering him away from the cave mouth and down towards the sea of one of the strange colors. He was too close to the color, he couldn't pull up, so he crashed through it. There were other colors, and then the ground.

_WHUMP!_

The blow was stunning, but still softer than expected. The ground was brown instead of gray and squishy. And the ceiling was that strange color—green like the Light-Fungus, but it didn't glow and was a very different shade—dotted with holes big and small where light (so much light!) filtered through.

Panicked and winded, he tried to crawl back to the cave mouth—

He was light and shrinking and sucked away into the strange, small place where he'd been confined after being paralyzed by Fungus-Food when it had been smaller. The mysterious space was small and enclosed and felt very safe. He would stay here for a while.

He would stay here where it was safe.

* * *

Naruto clipped the dusk-ball to his belt, flopped backwards onto the dirt, and sighed.

"I'm alive!"

It was an amazing thing, really. He'd really been starting to believe that he was going to die down in those caves. Either he'd starve to death…or be eaten.

But here he was, out of the caves, alive, and admiring the color-streaked evening sky through the hole in the leafy canopy that Ginsu had made with his crash.

It was great.

"…Now to get some dinner!"

Recalling Shiitake, Naruto hurried out of the Friendly Fields. The park was closed, but it wasn't terribly difficult to climb the fence and escape. And then it was off to the pokémon center for cheap food and a shower to get the dirt and cave slime off.

It was only after he'd arrived at the center and bolted down a plate full of food that he reflected on how deserted everything seemed, from the streets to the center itself. Trinity City was a pretty quiet place for its size, but now it was like a ghost town. He wondered about that, but only briefly as he had a bigger concern.

He'd asked the lone and very nervous attendant if Demon, Sandy, Shadow, and Typhoon were at the center, but they weren't. He'd checked the phones and data connections, but he could reach anything out of the country. So where were the rest of his pokémon?

_That Shion girl…she wasn't carried off, so…maybe she has them?_

So, with no other ideas, he headed off to the Fire Temple.

As he only knew one way to get there, he walked back to the gates of Friendly Fields and retraced the way he'd gone before. It took a while and he'd probably gone out of his way to follow that route, but he got there just as the stars started to come out and the street lights were coming on. And then he hit a road block at the front doors.

"Um…hello?" He banged on the large, imposing doors as loudly as he could to be sure that he'd be heard. "Anyone home?"

A panel in one of the large double-doors cracked open to reveal a smaller door, and a young man peered out at him suspiciously.

"I'm sorry, but we are not open to the public at this hour. Please come back tomorrow between the hours of eight AM and six PM."

"I just want to talk to Shion," Naruto said hurriedly before the acolyte could shut the little door. "It'll take five minutes, I swear!"

The young man hesitated. "Who are you?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"The boy from Fire Country who brought the other celestial vulpix here?" the acolyte warily asked.

Naruto awkwardly shoved his hands into his pants pockets. "Yeah."

The older boy paled and said "I'm sorry, we don't talk to ghosts here, please journey to the Ghost Temple in Pyre Town to the north," and then he shut the door.

The blond boy gaped at the shut door panel for a minute, and then attacked it, kicking at it in frustration.

"I'm not dead you weirdo! Open the door! I need to talk to Shion! Hey! Hey are you listening to me?!"

Just as he was about to kick the door again, the panel swung out and almost smacked him in the face.

"Hey—oh, hi."

On the other side, he saw the kindly old lady, the one who had led him to Demon when he'd been accidentally swapped with Kogane.

"Hello," the old priestess smiled and pushed the small door open wider. "Please, come in. Do you like tea?"

"Tea's fine," Naruto replied as he followed the old woman inside.

The Fire Temple had the feel of a museum at closing time in the evening. Most of the lights were off, casting strange shadows from many of the decorations, sculptures, and paintings. And aside from the nervous acolyte who'd first answered the door (who made some sign for warding off evil as Naruto passed him), there seemed to be no one else around. Even the fire pokémon who had free reign of the building were all gone from sight.

"Hey, how come that guy thought I was a ghost?" Naruto asked as the old lady led him into a small tea room with a low table and cushions to kneel on.

"No one has ever returned from the Underworld Caves," the old lady replied as she gestured for him to sit. "And everyone has heard how you were carried off by the dragon-like Demons of the past. No citizen of Demon Country can believe that anyone could survive such a fate."

"I got lucky," Naruto shrugged. "I was able to slip away from them while they were chewing on my backpack"—he showed her his bag with all its puncture marks—"and hid in a crack until they gave up on me. Getting out of those stupid caves was the real hard part."

A girl acolyte—not Shion, some other, slightly older girl—carried in a tray of tea, placed it on the table, bowed, and withdrew.

"And how did you manage that?" she asked as she poured him a cup of tea.

"Um…" Naruto fingered the dusk-ball on his belt. The old lady seemed to be the sanest of the temple people he'd met. But who was to say she wouldn't freak out if he told that he'd brought a "demon" into her temple? "Well, it's a crazy story… I came by to ask Shion about my pokémon; is she around?"

"No, unfortunately," the old priestess said. "As for your majuu…Fireball, if you please?"

A flareon briefly popped its head over the table before padding out of the room. Naruto tried to be patient and sampled the tea that had been poured for him. It was pretty good, better than the stuff his mom liked to drink. It reminded him of some of the gourmet stuff he'd gotten a chance to taste while he'd visited the Land of Tea.

Several minutes later, just as Naruto was finishing up his cup, the flareon returned, dragging a basket along. Inside the basket were three prison-balls—gray stainless-steel spheres with cranks on the top to lock them shut. They were temporary pokéballs used by policemen when criminals used pokémon; the balls were considered to be like handcuffs for pokémon. Naruto had never seen any in person before; he'd only seen them on police dramas on television.

"They got arrested by the police?"

"No, they were merely restrained by the police," the old lady said. "Your battle in the Friendly Fields drew police attention although they did not arrive in time to assist you. As anything demon-related is considered a spiritual matter, they deferred to Shion's judgment and she asked them to stop your majuu from assisting you."

Naruto barely restrained himself from shouting. "What?" _I could've avoided being lost underground for forever?!_

"She felt that allowing them to attempt to rescue you would only draw the attention of more Demons and lead to their deaths and perhaps the deaths of others." The old woman shook her head and poured herself more tea. "She is young and inexperienced. I do not agree with her decision, but I was not there to overrule her." She sipped at her tea and patted the flareon on its head. "Your majuu were unmanageable without you and so had to be restrained."

"Oh." Naruto looked in the basket again and frowned. "There are only three here…"

"Celestial majuu are never restrained," the priestess replied. "Your vulpix is with Shion and Kogane observing a meeting between the three temples at the fountains at the city center. They should return in about an hour…or you could go to the fountains and collect him yourself if you do not wish to wait."

"How do I get there?" Naruto asked, plucking the prison-balls from the basket.

"Simply follow Fire Road," said answered. "You can't miss it."

"Thank you…um…"

"Kaede," the old lady smiled.

"Thank you, Kaede-baa-chan." Naruto stood and bowed to her. "The tea was very tasty."

"Do visit me again before you move on from this city," the priestess requested. "I would very much like to hear of your adventures underground. And say hello to your friends for me."

"My friends?" Naruto tilted his head in bafflement.

"Three nice young trainers from Fire Country arrived this afternoon. I believe their names were Lee, Tenten, and Neji. They said that they knew you."

"They're here?" Naruto blinked, surprised. He'd expected that they would always be a part of Gai-sensei's dojo.

"Yes," Kaede nodded. "They may be at the fountains as well."

"Cool." He waved cheerfully at her. "Thank you again. I'll see you later."

Naruto hurried out of the slightly creepy darkened temple and back to Fire Road. He stopped there and loosened the knobs on the prison-balls. Now that he was back, his monster friends didn't need to be confined like this anymore.

The first one that he released was Shadow. The umbreon took one look at him and then pounced on his face to lick his skin raw. It took a good ten minutes to calm him down and convince him to return to his proper capsule.

Typhoon was the next one that he uncorked. The huge gyarados coiled around him like a constricting snake so it could hug him and lick his head while he was at it. It took another ten minutes, if not longer, to calm the water monster down and put him away in the proper sphere.

Sandy was the last one to be freed. He was especially excited to see her again as he hadn't had the time to appreciate her evolution before they'd been separated. He didn't mind how long it took to calm her down.

"You did really great," he told the flygon as she rubbed her sandpapery scales all over him. "If that _ice fang_ hadn't managed to freeze your wing up, I bet you would've gotten me back. It was just bad luck."

The green desert dragon held his face in her claws and licked his face.

"Heh, everybody wants to lick my face today," he snickered. "Well, it's time to head down Fire Road and find Demon." He pulled out Sandy's ball. "So let's—"

Sandy vigorously shook her head.

Naruto blinked. "…No?"

The dragon stirred her wings as if to take off and then beckoned to him.

"You…want to fly me there?"

She nodded eagerly.

"Okay," Naruto agreed. He tightened his hole-y backpack, climbed onto her back, and adjusted his goggles over his eyes. "Let's go, then!"

Sandy took off with such a jolt that Naruto almost slipped. And then they were high in the air—higher than they ever managed when she was just a vibrava and only able to lift him by the shoulders for short aerial hops. It was quite fantastic.

"Woohoo! To the fountain!" the boy cried over the rushing wind. "Follow that road!"

The flygon roared and soared towards the heart of Trinity City.

_This is so awesome!_

* * *

Kaede finished her second cup of tea and sighed. With age came wisdom. But age also stole vitality.

_If only I were young again…_ She gently rubbed between Fireball's ears. _…But then again, if I were young again, no one would respect me._

In her youth she'd been seen as radical (even though in her view, she was actually conservative in many of her views). She'd argued with the senior priests and priestesses over their purpose in the world so often she'd nearly been excommunicated twice. And many of her years she'd spent traveling the country, visiting obscure shrines and investigating lesser-known myths. Only when her hair had grayed, her joints had stiffened, and her tongue had learned to hold itself silent had she earned any sort of prestige and respect within the temple.

_Sometimes I wish that I was born elsewhere… But elsewhere there are no temples—not like here. There are so few legends that are remembered out there…I would be bored and probably have ended up in Demon Country anyway._

The old priestess stiffly rose and collected the tea things to bring back down to the kitchens.

_In such dark times, it's nice to have met so many nice young people,_ she thought with a small smile. _It's been a very long time since anyone called me "grandma"…_

* * *

Broken-Tooth sluggish fought his way back to consciousness. Last he knew, a lesser aerodactyl had disrespected him and then something had sprayed him with a glittering powder that had made him sleep. As he looked around, he spied The Brothers were also asleep.

_:Wake!:_ he snarled, kicking them. _:Wake now!:_

The pair slowly stirred and groggily looked around. While they got their bearings, Broken-Tooth stared off down the tunnel where the nameless aerodactyl of his flock had fled. That tunnel led to the other world, the New World.

_A new world,_ he thought. _New world…means new food. More food._

That was important. It was always hard to live here. It was hard to get enough to eat, and food always fought fiercely to defend itself.

The strange food that they had encountered up there in the New World had fought too. But if he'd had more help, more hunters, the result could've been different. It could've turned out the way the hunt at another corner of the world had, with strange food that had crept down a new tunnel opened by the shaking of the world.

_More food…we must have it._ He clacked his jaws and made up his mind. _We will hunt out there._

_ All of us._

He turned to The Brothers with a fierce gaze.

_:Rally flock,:_ he commanded. _:We hunt. All flock. We hunt!:_

_ :Yes!:_ they cried in excitement. _:Hunt! Hunt! Hunt!:_

The duo hurried back towards the heart of the world, calling to the flock with the rallying cry for the hunt.

Broken-Tooth hurried on ahead to the New World to scout and to wait. It was dark this time when he rose up through the roofless chamber into the mind-numbingly vast New World. The darkness above twinkled with countless tiny lights, but closer by there were brighter lights that illuminated many shapes. He circled above the opening—the Gateway—keeping his instinctual panic at the unnatural openness at bay with his intense focus on what was to come.

_We will hunt. We will catch. We will feed._

_ We will take this New World as our territory and become greater than The One Flock._

_ I will be greater than Flock Leader One-Eye._

_ It will be good…_


	11. Part XI

**Gold and Silver**

_Part XI_

Shion struggle not to fidget as the meeting by the fountain wrapped up. It had gone far smoother than the afternoon meeting; no demonic majuu rose up to interrupt this time. Even so, the air remained tense and no one was comfortable in a place that was supposed to be safe.

More representatives had come this time, and double the number of Temple majuu. The three warrior trainers of Fire Country were nearby with some of their powerful magical beasts already loose and ready for anything. And spotlights illuminated the statues of the Three Guardians that ringed the fountain pool, giving the impression that the statues could come alive and protect them should anything happen.

Yet, still no one was relaxed or comforted.

_No one will feel safe until the Underworld is thoroughly sealed off again,_ she thought as she sat on one of the stone benches with Esper at her side and the basket with Kogane and Demon on her other side. _The Gateway must be plugged, and whatever holes have appeared in the storm drains from the earthquake. Hopefully the temples will find a way and make the arrangements soon…_

The pale-haired girl looked away from the nervous cluster of priests to the basket of celestial vulpix that she was guardian of. Kogane was oblivious to the tension in the air and appeared to enjoy watching all the new people and majuu mill around. Demon was listless and utterly uninterested…in anything.

He didn't want to go anywhere. He didn't want to be touched. He didn't want to talk to anyone. He didn't want to eat. He didn't want anyone touching his _blue scarf_.

_It's been barely twenty-four hours,_ Shion thought. _He just needs time to accept his situation and grieve. Once he has come to terms with that boy's loss, things will get better. Patience…_

"I don't see why you don't have your own pokémon block these caves," Tenten said, startling Shion with her sudden closeness. "You have things that can learn _rock smash_ and _strength_ and _earthquake_, don't you? Why wait for help from this Quarry City place?"

"We don't use artificial means to teach majuu anything," Shion replied. "They learn on their own or from each other. Majuu from the temples of Quarry City are far better suited to seal off the caves of the Underworld."

"So you're just going to wait," the foreign girl snorted, "while prehistoric pokémon come and go as they please. That's smart."

"Why not ask local trainers for assistance?" Lee inquired. "Surely they have pokémon that are equipped to do what must be done."

"Few people elect to become trainers here. Instead, they become coordinators in contests and coach majuu in pokéthlons. Their majuu would stand no chance should a demonic majuu engage them in battle."

"And pokémon from these temples in Quarry City would do any better," Tenten challenged. "If they're anything like the temple pokémon here they'll be nothing but a bunch of weakling pushovers."

Shion tensed in anger. "You don't understand—"

_Whoosh!_

Everyone instantly fell silent and looked upwards at the stars. A dark shape glided high overhead, barely visible against the early night sky. And then another appeared, and another, and another, and another, and another…

"What are they?" someone whispered.

One passed over the nearly full moon and Shion felt dread clutch her heart.

_Oh no!_

A terrible shriek rent the air and one of the shapes dove down into the light cast by the street lights, revealing itself to be a winged Demon. It swung its talons out to grasp an acolyte of the Grass Temple, but missed by a tiny margin, soaring away with the poor girl's sleeve. As if the first attack was a signal, the rest made their dives while the people and majuu fled in every direction in panic.

"Kaiten, _aura sphere_," Neji commanded, his voice rising over the panicked shouts and cries. "Crane, _sky uppercut_!"

"Crasher, Wake, use _water gun_!" Lee shouted enthusiastically.

"Raze, _ice fang_! Katana, _energy ball_!" Tenten cried.

Their majuu reacted instantly. The lucario fired off blue spheres of fighting energy at the soaring demons while its blaziken partner lunged upwards, striking the airborne beasts with its burning fists. The swampert and poliwrath stood side-by-side and spat streams of water at the rock-skinned Demons. And the gyarados snapped at the dive-bombing devils with frozen fangs while the sceptile hurled orbs of green plant energy.

But they were heavily outnumbered.

Shion ducked under the stone bench that she'd been sitting on with Esper and yanked the basket of celestial vulpix down to the ground. Kogane was terrified and leapt out of the basket to crawl into Shion's robes and shivered in terror. The pale-haired girl turned to the scarf-clad celestial vulpix and pleaded with him again.

"Please, won't you help?"

Demon was unmoved by the chaos and danger around him, and turned his head away from her in refusal.

_Why?!_ the girl wondered, stunned and frightened. _Why don't you seem to care?!_

* * *

Demon ignored the stupid girl. He ignored all the screaming and the running and the fluttering of wings as the aerodactyl fell out of the dark sky. He caught glimpses of some sensible pokémon battling the aerodactyl and observed it with complete detachment.

There was no fear in him. Sitting still and out of the way, he wasn't likely to be picked off by the prehistoric pokémon. And if he was, then…oh well. It really didn't matter.

He was numb.

_:It is your destiny to be defeated by us!:_ Kaiten the lucario bellowed.

_:Flying will not save you!:_ Crane the blaziken declared as he struck yet another aerodactyl mid-flight.

_:We shall drown you!:_ Crasher the swampert shouted.

_:With the power of Youth!:_ Wake the poliwrath agreed.

_:Quit flying around up there!:_ Raze the gyarados roared. _:Come closer so I can bite you!:_

_ :Take this! And this! And this!:_ Katana the sceptile hissed as he hurled _energy ball_ after _energy ball_.

He remembered them from a long time ago. Many of them had evolved, but their humans hadn't changed all that much. There was the girl with the funny hair and the love of sharp, pointy things; the boy with the odd face and odd hair who loved Youth; the boy with the long hair, cold eyes, and cold heart.

_:Stop panicking!:_ Inari barked at the collection of vulpix that the ninetales had brought with her this time. _:Find Kogane and protect her!:_

_ :But-but what can we do?:_ one of the little, six-tailed foxes whined fearfully.

_:We are small and weak,:_ another whimpered.

_:You are stronger than you think.:_ The ninetales spat a _flamethrower_ at a low-flying aerodactyl, driving it up and away from the intense heat. _:Go now. Defend my daughter!:_

Demon snorted from his spot in the basket as he watched the five ordinary vulpix skitter and stumble through the chaos of fleeing bodies and grasping claws and teeth as they rushed to cluster around the stone bench. He ignored their sloppy defensive circle; it wasn't intended for him. They weren't much stronger than Kogane was so their attempts to protect her would be futile should an aerodactyl decide that it wanted to eat the golden girl fox.

The yells of fear and panic increased as the prehistoric pokémon managed to snag a few weakling temple pokémon and carry them off into the increasingly dark sky. Two torkoal, a wooper, a bellsprout, and a poliwag were gone, along with multiple sleeves and strips of cloth from temple uniforms. It was only a matter of time before a human was caught, too.

"Oh no!" Tenten yelped as a trio of aerodactyl ganged up on her gyarados and shocked it into submission with a frenzy of _thunder fang _attacks. "Raze, come back!" As soon as the water serpent was safely recalled, she sent out a scorpion-tailed gliscor. "Glider, turn the tables on them and give them your _thunder fang_!"

_:Yeehaw!:_ Glider cried, tongue wagging and electricity already sparking around his mouth. _:Here I come!:_

The gliscor bounced on his long, segmented tail and launched into the air, soaring upwards on his black ribbed wings as he sought his first target.

"Kaiten, if any get close enough, use _metal claw_!" Neji barked to his lucario.

_:Understood, Neji-sama!:_

"Don't give up!" Lee cheered. "Should we lose this battle, we shall perform one hundred push-ups as punishment!"

_:Hai, Lee-kun!:_ the swampert and poliwrath agreed in-between firing off _water gun_ attacks.

One of the meaner-looking aerodactyl fluttered down to perch on a large stone statue of a ninetales by the fountain pool. He had caught one of the torkoal and had the fire-tortoise pinned by his talons and tried to pull some of its softer parts out of its smoking shell. The fossil pokémon was having a hard time due to have several broken teeth…

_That one…_ Demon sat up straight in the padded basket. _That's the one that grabbed Naruto!_

Apathy abruptly forgotten, Demon saw red as he bolted towards the prehistoric beast with only vengeance on his mind.

_:I'm going to kill you!:_

He charged—heedless of any friend, foe, or bystander that was in his way. He spat a stream of fire, channeling all of his fury and rage into his fiery breath. The burst of flames grew bigger and bigger until the tip of the blast split into five branches—a _fire blast_—that crashed into the aerodactyl, knocking it from its perch on the statue so that it crashed into the shallow fountain pool.

Demon was so focused on hurting his foe that the new attack didn't register in his mind.

_:Hot-Food…:_ the aerodactyl hissed as he regained his footing in the water (the torkoal, which had slipped free, was now totally forgotten). _:Hot-Food is mine!:_

The snaggletooth aerodactyl blasted back into the air, snagging Demon with his talons as he went. Demon was unbothered by his predicament and battered his captor with brutal bursts of _extrasensory_ power. The aerodactyl howled at the invisible force that hurt it, but kept gaining altitude and kept squeezing his talons, slowly crushing his prey. Demon wheezed and darkness started to creep in at the corners of his vision.

_No…I need…I need to—_

_WHAM!_

Demon found himself knocked loose from the aerodactyl's claws and he was falling—

"Gotcha!"

The vulpix blinked – dazed – and found himself in the arms of a boy wearing goggles and riding on the back of something that was green and flying.

"Are you okay, Demon? Did that jerk squeeze you too tight?" the boy asked over the rushing wind. "I'm sorry that we were late."

_:We were having too much fun flying,:_ Sandy said. _:We flew too far and had to turn around.:_

Demon stared at the boy, trembled, and then attached himself to the kid's chest, hugging as best as he could with his little four-legged body.

_Naruto!_

* * *

_I guess this means that he missed me,_ Naruto thought with a grin as the golden vulpix tried to burrow into his coat.

His smile quickly vanished as Sandy lurched beneath him.

The dark sky was choked with aerodactyl. The prehistoric beasts caught on to the non-aerodactyl in their midst and turned to attack from all directions. Naruto held on for dear life as his dragon struggled to fly free of the mess of wings, claws, and teeth.

They didn't make it out unscathed.

"Yaaah!"

One of the aerodactyl caught his backpack and almost lifted him off the flygon's back. The only thing that saved him was all the punctures in the pack, which caused it to shred and spill his things all over the city square below. Naruto wasn't sure whether to curse his bad luck or be relieved by his good fortune.

"Take us down!" Naruto cried, because it was just too dangerous up in the air.

Sandy dove towards the ground with her wings tucked in for greater speed…and was nearly hit by a glowing green ball of energy as she flared her wings to land.

"Hey!" Naruto yelped as the energy orb whizzed over his shoulder. "What was that for?!"

"…Naruto?!"

The boy turned to the voice and found a startled Tenten standing beside a panting sceptile.

"Hi Tenten!" Naruto waved and grinned as he slipped off Sandy's back and onto solid ground.

"Geeze, people were talking like you were dead!" the brunette tomboy yelled.

Naruto pouted a bit. _Really? I wasn't lost underground for __**that**__ long, was I?_

"Naruto-kun!" Lee cried, peeking around a clump of decorative trees with tears gathering at the corners of his large, round eyes. "You are alive!"

The blond boy grinned weakly. "Yeah…"

Demon pulled his fuzzy face out of Naruto's chest and ran his rough, hot tongue over the boy's scarred cheek. Naruto blinked and tried to recall the last time that the vulpix had done something so openly affectionate to him. But nothing came to mind.

_…Maybe I did die?_

A chorus of harsh cries high above distracted the boy from his surprise. The flock of aerodactyl that he'd briefly thrown into chaos had gotten reorganized. And their first victim was a gliscor that they sent spiraling down in a tailspin.

"Glider!" Tenten gasped as the flying ground monster thudded on the cobblestone-paved ground with swirly eyes. "Oh no!"

The purple creature's dark hide was patched in frost—a clear sign that it had fallen victim to several _ice fang _attacks.

"That's enough for you," the tomboy sighed and put the trounced monster safely away. "It's time for Muku to take a turn—"

"These aerodactyl are capable of using both _thunder fang _and _ice fang_," Neji interrupted, seemingly melting out of the shadows. "Any flying-type pokémon is left at a severe disadvantage. Your staraptor will fare little better than Glider or Raze did."

Tenten huffed. "Yeah, you're right… Darn it!"

More piercing cries heralded several aerodactyl diving at once, heading for a cluster of temple staff and pokémon that dared risk trying to flee the very open city square for the greater cover of the narrow side streets. Inari the ninetales interceded before anyone else could react, throwing herself in their way and letting loose an _extrasensory_ attack. The psychic power knocked the lead aerodactyl into two of its companions, leading to a nasty mid-air collision. But a fourth aerodactyl avoiding the tangle and counterattacked.

_"Inari-sama!"_

Cries of terror rose in horror as the fossil pokémon dragged Inari off the ground with its sharp stone claws. The ninetales tried to twist around and breathe fire on her captor, but the aerodactyl bit her on the back of her neck with a shocking _thunder fang_. The bite seemed to paralyze her, leaving her helpless as the flying monster continued to gnaw on her as it climbed higher and higher.

"Sandy, knock it down with _dragon breath_!" Naruto cried.

The flygon took off in pursuit, but was blind-sided by another aerodactyl and was entangled in her own desperate struggle.

"There are too many of them," Neji said with quiet grimness. "We are not hurting them enough to make them leave."

"I think some of these aerodactyl have the _pressure_ ability," Tenten observed. "Our pokémon are running out of attack power—we can't keep this up much longer."

"We cannot just give up!" Lee declared. "Over these ancient creatures we have the power of Youth!"

Naruto pulled a pair of pokéballs off his belt and aimed them towards where Sandy was wrestling with an aerodactyl that was trying to bite her head off.

"Shadow, use _dark pulse_! Shiitake, use _mach punch_!"

The breloom darted in and punched the aggressive fossil pokémon in the head with blinding speed. Just as the mushroom was hopping aside, the umbreon launched a wave of dark energy that nearly knocked the prehistoric creature over. And then Sandy took it out with a _dragon claw_ to the chin, leaving it out cold.

_That's one down,_ Naruto thought. _And about…forty…to go._

With that one taken care of, Sandy went back to trying to rescue the ninetales—

An intense blast of heat by his ear made Naruto flinch. Another aerodactyl had tried to dive down on him and the dojo trainers, but Demon was warding it off from his shoulder with a fire attack. The flames were so intense the rock monster looked like it was steaming as it pulled away, screeching fearfully.

_Was that…__**fire blast**__?_ Naruto stared at the golden vulpix, unsure. _When did he learn how to do that?_

Sandy managed to catch up to the aerodactyl that had abducted Inari and—while it was distracted by trying to keep other away from its prey—grabbed it by the tail. The fossil pokémon was so startled by the yank on its tail that it almost fell from the sky. The desert dragon sprayed a blast of _dragon breath_ on the aerodactyl's back in an attempt to make it drop the ninetales or make it fly lower, but the dragon fire paralyzed the prehistoric beast so it plummeted like a rock, dragging Sandy and Inari down with it. Sandy tried to control the rapid descent, but the aerodactyl was heavy and there wasn't enough time—

"Typhoon, catch them!" Naruto cried, sending his gyarados out into the fray.

The water serpent used his sinuous body like a shock absorber, getting his head underneath the falling tangle of beasts and then slowly bending his muscular body down to the ground, canceling out most of the inertia of their motion. As soon as they were safely on the ground Sandy worked at prying the wounded ninetales away from the paralyzed rock monster. A few other aerodactyl made as if to attack, but Typhoon's _intimidate_ kept them at bay…for the moment.

Naruto sprinted over to where Sandy and Typhoon were with Demon, Shiitake, and Shadow. Neji's blaziken and lucario had beaten them there and dragged the heavy, paralyzed aerodactyl a safe distance away. As Typhoon snapped his jaws threateningly up at the sky, Naruto scrambled over his coils to get a look at the damage.

Inari was bleeding. She'd been bitten badly on the back of her neck and on her flank. Paralyzed and very weak, she lay helpless as her wounds kept oozing blood. She needed medical attention—any kind of medical attention—and fast.

_I have a hyper potion, don't I?_ Naruto reached for his backpack…and found only a few scraps of cloth left strapped to his back where the bag used to be. He'd forgotten that it had been torn off, and his stuff scattered. _Aw crap!_

The boy mulled his options over for a minute before coming to a snap decision.

"Shiitake, Demon, Shadow, search the square for a potion that I dropped and bring it back here as fast as you can," he ordered. "Sandy, Typhoon, attack the aerodactyl flock with _dragon breath_ and _twister_ attacks to draw them off and keep them busy. Go now!"

His monsters rushed to obey. Shiitake, Demon, and Shadow dashed off in three different directions in search of his lost items. Sandy and Typhoon moved a short distance away and unleashed bursts of dragon fire and shredding tornadoes at the circling hoard of aerodactyl, immediately becoming the center of attention.

"Okay," Naruto gulped as he fingered his dusk-ball. "Let's do this then…"

Ginsu materialized and, before it could get overwhelmed by the chaos created by its own kind, Naruto grabbed its head and forced it to stare directly into his face.

"I have a new task for you, Ginsu," he said loudly over the sounds of fighting. "You will defend this spot. You will defend this creature. You will do exactly as I say."

_Please let this work,_ he thought as he arranged his aerodactyl to best defend the prone ninetales. _Please let everything work out…_

* * *

Demon zigzagged between massive stone flower pots and clumps of small trees, searching for lost stuff. So far, all he'd located were a few berries. The hardier types had landed intact, but the softer kinds were little more than smears on the cobblestones. They weren't what he was looking for, though, so he ignored them and kept looking.

_Potion… Potion… Where are you, you stupid bottle!_

He didn't like this task. He would much rather stay with Naruto and make sure that no other aerodactyl got funny ideas about carrying him off again. But finding medicine for Inari was important, and the sooner the potion was found the sooner he could get back—

The vulpix barely moved in time to avoid the grasping claws of a flying fossil pokémon that dropped down from the darkness at him. Even though it didn't catch him, it knocked him off his feet and sent him tumbling sideways. He hurriedly scrambled back to his feet to be prepared for another swooping strike from above…and stepped on something.

Glancing down, he found a shard of green stone with yellow, lightning-like veins in it. Nearby lay wooden fragments that might've been a small box before it fell to the street and crashed into pieces. In the debris there was another stone—

_:Hot-Food!:_

Demon looked up to see the aerodactyl with the broken-tooth soaring barely a foot over the ground, charging at him at top speed.

_:Mine!:_

The golden vulpix desperately rolled out of the way of the prehistoric beast's enormous jaws and through the broken box bits—

It almost felt like his _flash fire_ had activated, but was ten times more intense of a sensation. The feeling spread out from a spot on his side where he'd rolled over something lumpy and hard. He felt it spread from the tips of his fur to the deepest marrow of his bones and the _blue scarf_ around his neck felt a bit tighter all of a sudden.

He felt…different.

He felt strong.

_:You!:_ Demon bellowed with a voice he hardly recognized as his own. _:I've had enough of you!:_

The snaggletooth aerodactyl swung around for another low-altitude charge, but hesitated, as if confused.

_:Hot-Food?:_

_:Go to hell!:_ Demon howled and unleashed an intense _flamethrower_ at his foe, driving it away with a burn on its chest.

With a snort, he returned to his search, satisfied that he'd taught the nasty beast a lesson.

He was so focused on his task that he failed to notice that his paws were now silver instead of gold.


	12. Part XII

**Gold and Silver**

_Part XII_

Shion still cowered under the stone bench, unable to bear watching the chaos going on in the square any longer. Esper and several of Inari-sama's attendant vulpix encircled her and Kogane with their soft warm bodies, but the girl found it to be no comfort. Never before had Shion wished more to have never left her birthplace of Astral Town.

Astral Town was safe and small. There was only one temple there—a temple dedicated to psychic majuu. All her family lived there; her family line originated from that town.

And, most importantly, there were no ancient Demons living underneath people's feet in simple Astral Town.

_Why did mother have to have that stupid vision that my future lay in fire?!_ The pale-haired girl choked back a sob, fearful that any sound would draw the flying monsters' attention. _Why oh why did I have to come here?!_

People and majuu were going to die tonight. Some had surely died already. It wouldn't be the slaughter that the legend spoke of having happened in the past, but only because there were fewer people outside to be devoured.

Inari-sama had fallen. Shion hadn't seen it happen, but she didn't need to, and she was glad that she hadn't seen it. She'd heard the screams and cries of horror over the unearthly shrieking of the Demons.

_I want to go home!_

There was a tremendous impact and the stone bench she was sheltering under was knocked aside and broken in half like it was a toy. One of the flying Demons had crashed into it and was now struggling back upright on the ground. Before it could take flight again, a lucario assaulted it with a glowing _metal claw_ attack.

A hand grasped her shoulder, nearly making her scream, and pulled her to her feet.

"You should not be here," the stoic boy with the long hair said to her with inhuman calm. "It is not safe out here. All of your comrades have made it out of the square. You should join them."

Sure enough, the city square was empty of priests and temple majuu; only the flying Demons and those battling them remained. All the decorative plants and planters were destroyed, there were scraps of cloth and other debris scattered over the cobblestones, and at least one of the light poles had been knocked over. She couldn't see what was on the other side of the central fountain, but it was a safe assumption that it was in the same state as the side of the square that she was on.

"You should hurry," the foreigner warrior boy said and steered her towards the nearest side street, which was a good twenty yards away. "It's not safe out here for those who cannot defend themselves. You are only in our way."

Shion flinched a bit at that. It was strange for a layperson to tell a holy person (even one who was just in training like she was) that they were in the way. But in this case he was correct; she was just a hindrance here. So she gathered up Kogane in her arms and hurried for the nearest street where she could find a building to duck into and be safe with Esper and the other vulpix following after her.

The temple girl hurried towards the street—Sunset Road, she thought it was called—and—

Kogane leapt from her arms about halfway to their goal and darted to the right, around a small clump of decorative trees that was still mostly undamaged. Shion scrambled to follow her, ready to chastise her for being so reckless—

Inari-sama lay on the ground, still as death. There was blood on her pale golden fur. One of the evil monsters loomed over her, like a predatory bird hovering over its kill.

_No, no, no, no…_

Esper bristled at the sight of the mighty gray beast. Kogane danced around between Shion and the winged Demon, yapping and whining, desperate for her mother yet afraid to go any closer. The other vulpix clustered around her feet, shivering in fear. Shion stood frozen and stared at the boy—

…The boy?

He stood partially obscured by the ancient creatures leathery wings, barely half-lit by the nearest functioning lamppost. The dull yellow light only enhanced his bright blond, spiky hair, and the shadows cast on his face highlighted the strange scars on his cheek. The winged Demon was breathing down his neck, but he didn't seem bothered at all. And then he turned, caught sight of her peeking out of the shadows, and waved to her.

"Hey, Shion!" Naruto called to her. "You shouldn't just stand there! Why don't you come over here where it's safer?"

_Where it's…__**safer**__?!_

* * *

Things were so confusing that Ginsu the aerodactyl couldn't do anything other than what he was told to do. The Flock—his old flock—circled above, crying with rage and hunger and pain. He was guarding some kind of food that he didn't know and he wasn't allowed to eat it. And he was in some bizarre world that was not the world that he knew.

He tried not to pay attention to how unnaturally open everything was. It was easier now that it was mostly dark. That way he could pretend that there was a ceiling somewhere up there. He could just pretend that he was in the largest cave chamber imaginable and it would be fine.

The other aerodactyl were tired. He could tell by their sluggish, uneven wing beats, and their strained voices. Very little food had been acquired on this hunt, and many had been hurt. The Flock was losing…which was unheard of.

_:Hungry!:_

_ :Ow, ow, ow!:_

_ :Bad hunt!:_

_ :Die, food, die!:_

_ :Ouch!:_

_ :Tired…:_

_ :Hunt over yet?:_

Ginsu was distracted from the chorus of complaints by the arrival of some other kind of food. It sort of looked like Leader-Food…if he really squinted at it. There were other little food things with it—a purple one, several brown and reddish ones, and a golden-yellow and orange one.

_:Mother!:_ the golden-yellow one whined, prancing back and forth just out of his reach. _:Get up, mother! Get up!:_

He wasn't starving anymore, but he could still eat if food was available. A successful hunt was just as much luck as skill and an aerodactyl could go hungry for days before catching the next meal. If he ate that golden-yellow, almost bite-sized thing now…

_Smack!_

"No, Ginsu!" Leader-Food barked. "Kogane is not for eating!"

The aerodactyl immediately turned his head back to the sky to watch for aerial attackers. A few aerodactyl had tried dive-bombing them earlier, but bursts of _supersonic_ had muddled their heads and sent them off in confusion. No others had tried since. They recognized the food that he was defending as his prey and didn't care to try and take it from him.

"You…have claimed it?" Not-Leader-Food said in a choked voice.

"Yeah, he got me out of the caves," Leader-Food replied. "I got really lost down there."

_:Mother!:_ the yellow and orange thing yipped piteously. _:Mother, get up! Say something!:_

The pale yellow thing that he had been defending only wheezed feebly and trembled periodically to show that it was still alive.

_:Mother!:_

He vaguely recalled his own mother. After he'd hatched he'd been small and weak with no knowledge on how to fly or hunt. She had fed him and taught him and loved him for a while. Then one day she had changed and driven him away. He hadn't seen her after that, and was soon too busy trying to keep fed that he stopped missing her.

"You can come closer, Kogane," Leader-Food invited.

The yellowish thing hesitated for a moment and then flung itself onto the wounded thing it called "mother". The brown and red things (which looked very much like the yellowish thing, they were simply different colors) hesitated for a moment, and then rushed to join it in hovering around the bleeding food-creature. Not-Leader-Food and the purple thing edged closer, but stayed out of reach.

_:Inari-sama!:_ the curly-tailed creatures whimpered. _:Inari-sama, please don't die!:_

_ :What will we do without you?!:_

_ :We need you!:_

_ :Please stay here with us!:_

_ :Speak to us, Inari-sama!:_

_ :Tell us what to do!:_

_ :Mother, I'm sorry!:_ the yellowish one sobbed, burying its face into the wounded creatures flank. _:I'll behave! I'll be good! I promise! I'm sorry!:_

Food had feelings. Ginsu knew that food felt fear, and would fight fiercely to avoid being eaten. But it had never occurred to him that food could love other food; that it could be sad, or angry.

He wasn't sure what he thought of this little revelation.

A black thing with yellow markings rushed over to Leader-Food. Ginsu was ready to crush it, but Leader-Food's upraised hand stopped him. The black thing delivered a small object to Leader-Food, who studied it before shaking his head.

"This isn't the medicine that I was looking for, but thanks for finding it, Shadow," he said and patted the black thing on the head.

Fungus-Food bounded over next, and Ginsu ignored him. It too brought strange objects to Leader-Food. One of the objects was apparently the right one and Leader-Food was excited and pleased.

"You found it! Thanks, Shiitake!"

Leader-Food went over to the wounded thing and seemed to use the object on it. Not-Leader-Food finally came closer and had some quiet discussion with Leader-Food. Fungus-Food watched the sky, while the black thing eyed Ginsu.

_:You serve Naruto-kun now?:_ the black thing demanded.

The aerodactyl had to puzzle over this question for a moment; all these strange new creatures had such odd, complicated ways of speaking. _:…Yes?:_

_:Naruto-sama and I captured him,:_ Fungus-Food said with pride. _:His defeat made me strong. I became so strong that I changed.:_ The fungus creature bounced with glee and waved its arms. _:I have hands now!:_

_ :I see.:_ The black thing turned its red eyes up to the dark sky. _:Keep focused! The enemy is still above us.:_

The flock's discontent was growing by the minute—Ginsu could hear it. For every attack that they had launched, they were attacked in turn. They were being hit with powers that they had no experience with by creatures that they'd never seen before. They were hurt and the hunt was failing.

_:Attack!:_ Broken-Tooth bellowed as he fluttered into Ginsu's field of vision. The Flock Leader took a perch on an oddly shaped stone that sort of looked like a food creature at the edge of the strange pond. He looked tired and there was a terrible burn wound on his chest. _:All together, attack! Crush! Kill!:_

Their leader's rallying cry stirred up their flagging spirits and the flock, almost as one, dropped from the safety of higher altitudes to attack the ground.

"Crasher, Wake, _hydro pump_!"

"Katana, _leaf storm_!"

"Kaiten, _aura sphere_! Crane, _flamethrower_!"

"_Fire blast, hydro pump, dark pulse, dragon breath, stun spore_!" Leader-Food shouted as loudly as he could. "Ginsu, _ancient power_!"

The air was full of falling bodies and rising attacks. Ginsu launched massive rocks he pulled up from the ground, hitting several old flock-mates. There was fire and water and leaves and darkness and orbs of light and many, many explosions.

"Everyone, use _roar_!" Leader-Food cried.

Ginsu joined several others in unleashing flight-inducing _roar_ attacks.

And then the Flock was broken. They peeled away from the open space with the strange pond in ones and twos and threes. In ten minutes, they were all gone and the air was quiet.

_:…Won won.:_ Fungus-Food declared proudly.

_:Thank goodness,:_ the black creature sighed.

_:Yay!:_ the giant blue worm cheered and slithered closer.

Ginsu had ignored it and various other creatures as Leader-Food had had him focused on the Flock. But now he paid attention to it, and sensed that it was very powerful and very dangerous. Now that there was no common enemy, it had to be dealt with. He tensed and prepared to strike—

_:Naruto-kun, we made them go away!:_ the giant blue worm gurgled and approached Leader-Food in a clearly submissive posture. _:We did good, right?:_

Leader-Food patted the huge blue worm thing on its scaly head. "You did great, Typhoon. Everyone did great."

_That…is subordinate to him, too?_

The aerodactyl was very impressed. Leader-Food had to be very powerful and smart to hold power over something that was clearly strong and dangerous. And then another strong creature claimed allegiance to Leader-Food.

_:Naruto-kun!:_ a large, green, flying thing cried from up in the air. _:They're flying away from the city. They're leaving!:_

_:But will they stay gone?:_ the purple thing asked. It twitched its odd half-split tail and flicked its large ears as it stared suspiciously at Ginsu. _:You are one of them. If you are truly on our side, tell us if they will return!:_

Ginsu blinked and struggled to process the question. _:Er…Flock not come back…for a while. Flock hurt, tired, unhappy. Broken-Tooth decides big hunts…:_

_ :…So you don't know,:_ the purple thing muttered, disgusted.

The aerodactyl bristled. He didn't appreciate the purple thing's tone at all. Perhaps it was time to try and establish the pecking order…

"You caught an aerodactyl?"

"Most impressive, Naruto-kun!"

"Indeed."

Ginsu turned to find several other Not-Leader-Foods watching him, and even more peeking warily out of nearby canyons. They all sort of looked similar, and yet they were all so very different. He was used to more subtle differences in appearance among the members of his old Flock. With so much variety in their forms and faces he was left utterly unnerved.

What were they looking at? What did they want? Did they want to fight? Did they think he was still part of the Flock? What should he—

"You did very well, Ginsu," Leader-Food said. "Take a rest."

And then he was sucked into the other place. There were no alien faces and unknown intentions to worry about here. So he rested, and he thought, and he wondered…

_What now?_

* * *

Naruto sighed and clipped the dusk-ball back to his belt. He was glad that Ginsu had behaved himself fairly well during the battle, but now that the danger was past it was time for his prehistoric beast to get bottled up again. The temple people would probably appreciate it.

As soon as the aerodactyl was out of sight, the priests and acolytes of the various temples flowed back into the ruined square with their timid pokémon. Most had superficial injuries like scrapes and bruises, but a few were hurt a bit more badly with sprained ankles and deeper cuts. It was impossible for Naruto to tell if anyone had been carried off or killed as he hadn't been on the scene before the fight broke out, but it didn't look like the wild aerodactyl had succeeded in getting any human or pokémon.

"Inari-sama!" a Fire Priestess fussed and pushed her way over to the wounded ninetales' side. "Inari-sama, you're bleeding!"

Even with the potent potion that Naruto had used on her, the ninetales was in bad shape. Her wounds had mostly stopped bleeding but that was all. If she wasn't transported to a pokémon center soon she could very well die.

Other priests and priestesses from all three temples hurried over to help. They gathered up the pale yellow fox and struggled to carry her away. It would've been much simpler to put Inari in a pokéball and transport her that way, but Naruto didn't think that the holy people would appreciate his advice.

"Kogane, wait!" Shion said as she prevented the oddly-colored vulpix from following her injured mother. "Wait here with us. You'll only be in the way if you follow them."

The little golden fox didn't like it, but she stopped and obeyed.

Naruto looked at Kogane, and then at his own collection of monsters. He glanced around the square and at all the pokémon that were in sight. He frowned.

_Where's Demon?_

"Shiitake, Shadow, did you see where Demon went?" he asked the breloom and umbreon. The two shook their heads, and Naruto turned to his flygon. "Sandy, did you see Demon?"

"Lost one of your pokémon?" Neji asked.

Naruto tensed at the sound the Hyuuga boy's voice. He wasn't one to hold much of a grudge, but it was hard to forget how brutally nasty Neji had been to Hinata—his own cousin. About the only way that Neji could've been meaner in that match was if he'd walked up to Hinata and started beating on her himself. Hinata was a nice girl and hadn't deserved getting her fragile confidence shredded and stomped on that way…

The blond boy turned to answer—

A gasp rippled through the remaining priests and priestesses and their pokémon. Naruto turned his attention to them and found them all staring at the same spot. He followed their gaze…and found a silver nine-tailed fox standing by the stone statue of the ninetales that sat at the edge of the fountain.

It was wearing a _blue scarf_.

Shion fell to her knees beside him and clasped her hands over her heart. "Gingitsune…is reborn?"

* * *

After a whole lot of searching, and a _fire blast_ and _roar_ attack to force the aerodactyl to flee, Demon reluctantly gave up looking for the medicine that Naruto wanted. All he'd found were smashed berries, that broken wooden box, and a shattered medicine bottle. The human potion that he was looking for was either not in the area that he chose to search, or was destroyed, so there was no point in wasting any more time looking for it.

His searching had brought him to the far side of the square where no one else seemed to be. Without a horde of angry and hungry aerodactyl to worry about he took his time walking around the large, round pool that housed the towering, layered fountain. He came out from the shadow of the meganium statue and walked past the ninetales statue…when everyone decided to stare at him.

The temple people stared at him. The other pokémon stared at him. Even Naruto and the dojo trainers stared at him.

_…What?_

The Shion girl collapsed to the ground, clutched at her chest, and whispered something with wide eyes.

_Whatever…_

Shrugging off the girl's weirdness, Demon padded over to Naruto and the others. He eyed Shiitake, now a breloom, and wondered if the mushroom's evolution would tone down its aggressiveness. As he sat down before the blond boy, he grew unnerved by Naruto's blue-eyed stare.

_:What?:_

_ :Gingitsune!:_ Kogane whimpered. _:Please use your divine powers to help my mother.:_

Demon looked at the girl vulpix, baffled by her question…and why she seemed smaller. _:What are you talking about?:_

_ :She thinks you're Gingitsune,:_ Shadow piped up. _:That silver fox from the paintings in the Fire Temple.:_

Demon snorted incredulously. _:I am not Gingitsune. I—:_

"Demon…you wouldn't have happened to find that _fire stone_ I had in my bag…" Naruto said slowly.

_:__**Fire stone**__?:_ Demon blinked. _He had one? For how long?!_

_:You haven't…noticed?:_ Sandy asked.

_:Noticed what?:_ Demon frowned. _:Whatever it is, just say it.:_

_ :You're a ninetales now. You evolved,:_ Shadow said. _:You need a stone to do that. How did you not notice?:_

_ :I—:_ Demon remembered the hard thing he'd rolled over when dodging that aerodactyl and how he'd felt different. He looked down at his front paws and found…silver. He looked over his shoulder and found nine sleek tails…with blue tips. He'd changed…and yet he was stuck with the same problem as before. _:Oh…:_

Naruto kneeled down and loosened the scarf around Demon's neck. "I suppose this works out. You've picked up all your natural moves, so there wasn't any need to put this off. I just wish I could've watched."

Demon muttered a weak: _:Oops.:_

"Hey, Shion," Tenten the bun-haired girl said. "You called him 'Gingitsune'? What's that mean?"

The Shion girl tried to answer, but her voice seemed to have deserted her as she stared at Demon.

"It's part of the history of the festival," Naruto answered for her. "There's all these cool paintings in the Fire Temple that go along with this story." He turned to Shion. "Do you think we could go see them again?"

"Of course," an older Fire Priest replied for the girl. "Of course. Let us all return to our temples. There is nothing else for us to do here."

* * *

Minato yawned as Ryuu soared through the night sky. He rarely engaged in night flights, but haste was called for in his particular errand. Kushina had called him and been worried, and he was out to soothe her fears.

_Lucky for me that I was training just outside of Demon Country._ He yawned again. _I just wish she decided to call me earlier in the day so I could've started off sooner._

He'd barely felt the moderate earthquake that had cut off communications with large parts of Demon Country, and hadn't thought much of it until she'd called him about it. Naruto was in one of the silent cities, and had even been cut off mid-call with Professor Sarutobi because of the quake. Kushina just wanted to know if Naruto was safe so that she could stop worrying.

_We should be reaching Trinity City any minute now,_ Minato thought as he consulted the glowing display of his digital watch. _It's late. First thing tomorrow morning I'll look around for him, maybe loan him my satellite phone—what's that?_

Dark shapes swirled in the air just short of the lights of Trinity City. At first from their silhouettes he thought they were charizards, but they lacked the flaming tail tips. Their sizes and wing shapes weren't right to be salamence or dragonites, and the region was wrong for those species anyway. So what were they?

"Ryuu, let's go in for a closer look…"


	13. Part XIII

**Gold and Silver**

_Part XIII_

_Note to self: Do not investigate the mystery pokémon in the dark of night._

Minato sighed and slumped low on Ryuu's back. The mystery pokémon had turned out to be aerodactyl (which surprised the heck out of him) and they hadn't been friendly. It seemed that they'd already been in a fight so it hadn't been too difficult to drive the aggressive creatures back and down a large hole in the ground. To make sure that they didn't try anything else, he'd had Hana use _earthquake_ to collapse the tunnel, and then he'd left.

_It's a pity that I couldn't split one off from the flock, though,_ he thought as Ryuu lazily glided over Trinity City. _An aerodactyl would be an impressive catch…_

The dragonite circled over the city center, which was a large open square with an ornate fountain at the center. Minato frowned as he noticed that it was trashed. Several lampposts were knocked over and dark, decorative flower planters were overturned and smashed, the cobblestones that paved the ground were cracked and completely destroyed in some places, and most of the trees had chunks missing out of them if they weren't snapped in half.

It looked like a warzone.

"Ryuu, take us down please."

The square looked even worse close up. He found scraps of clothing, scattered items, and even some smears of blood on the cobblestones. And then, as he was collecting some salvageable berries, he spied some shards of wood and a glittering sliver of a _thunderstone_.

"This might've been a box," he muttered he nudged the wooden splinters with the toe of his shoe.

He added the _thunderstone_ to his collection of lost items. There was also what might've been another evolution stone, but its energies had been consumed, leaving it a useless lump of dull gray, crystalline rock. And then he found a well-worn note attached to what was left of the inside of the box lid.

Minato skimmed the note to see if he could use it to determine the proper owner…and paled slightly.

_Okay, now __**I'm**__ worried…_

* * *

Naruto squinted against the bright morning sunlight as he walked back to the central square. He'd been in such a hurry to get inside the night before that he'd forgotten all about all of the stuff that had fallen from his destroyed backpack. Now he was going back to collect whatever was still there.

_With prehistoric pokémon around, people don't want to go out so everything __**should**__ still be there…_ He grimaced and brought his pace to a brisk walk._ At least my extra clothes should still be laying around; I really need those._

"Naruto-kun!"

The blond boy turned to find Lee jogging down the street after him. The boy with the bowl-cut had all of his pokémon out and jogging along with him. His machop was now a machoke and his final tyrogue had become a hitmontop—joining the hitmonchan and hitmonlee that he had already had—and then there were his swampert and poliwrath (both evolved since the last time that he'd seen them in the dojo). While Naruto had been persuaded to spend the night at the Fire Temple, Lee and his companions had returned to the pokémon center for the night after they'd viewed the paintings.

"It is a most glorious morning!" Lee cried and slowed to jog almost in place when he caught up with Naruto. "Will you join us on our morning run? Gai-sensei says that exercise sharpens the mind, stokes the flames of Youth, and is the best way to start the day."

"No, I need to go gather up all my stuff back in the square," Naruto said. "And then I need to get a new backpack."

Lee paused and then thrust his fist into the air. "We shall assist you! The more hands there are to help, the more quickly the task will be done!"

"Okay," Naruto agreed, and then almost had to run to keep up as Lee and his pokémon team rushed onwards to the fountain square. "Hey, Brushy Brows, wait up!"

* * *

Kaede calmly walked along the artificial trails that wound around the manicured lawns of the Temple grounds with her flareon companion. She wasn't overly concerned about the ancient majuu attacking her. So long as she kept aware of her surroundings and alert to danger there wasn't much to worry about.

The Fire Temple is in a quiet sort of uproar. Inari, one of the most beloved majuu of the temple, was seriously injured and being treated at the pokémon center. Those of the temple, especially the youngest members, were choked with fear that she may die.

The elderly priestess had faith that Inari would live. The nine-tailed fox had been old and wise when Kaede had been a young girl, and even though the ninetales was old she was still strong. Inari would not die, not with medical technology as advanced as it was in this day and age. The real question in her mind was would Inari be recovered enough to participate in the festival, which was only six days away now.

But of course the festival's importance was greatly reduced by the threat of the ancient majuu's return. As "demons" they were the responsibility of the temples to deal with, yet the temples were not well equipped to deal with them. Her peers stubbornly wished to wait for aid from distant temples that were of better types to seal the monsters away, but she knew it was folly.

_We ought to call for help from any trainer that will respond and seal the caves off immediately,_ she knew. _Anyone with the power of __**earthquake**__ or something similar should be rallied and the cave openings be collapsed. Then powerful majuu protection will be needed to assist the maintenance workers who will inspect the storm drains and plug the new holes that have opened to the Underworld._

_ But of course no one really listens to me._

"Kaede-obaa-sama?"

The old woman paused and turned to find young Shion—the outsider bound to the temple by Kogane's favor—standing at a fork in the path with her primary companion, Esper.

"Yes?"

"I…did you see the new celestial ninetales?" the girl with the strikingly pale hair asked timidly.

"I did," Kaede smiled and beckoned the girl closer. "Such a wonderful creature he is. He proves that not only was Gingitsune real, but a celestial, just as many spiritual scholars theorized. That would make all three of the Three Guardians celestial majuu."

The girl born of Astral Town nodded and fidgeted with her wide, flowing sleeve. "Do you think that Kogane will be given a _fire stone_ now that her future form has been seen?"

"If she is not ready, Inari will not allow it," Kaede replied.

"You think Inari-sama will survive?" Shion swallowed hard.

"I will be very surprised if she does not," the old woman answered.

The girl nodded and dropped her gaze to a nearby rose bush. "…It doesn't seem right," she murmured quietly.

"What doesn't?" Kaede inquired, making the girl jump.

"W-well…the temples are supposed to protect the city, and yet we are left helpless when a true crisis arises—we needed foreigners to protect us!" The girl folded her arms over her chest and scowled at the ground as if it had offended her. "It doesn't seem right."

Kaede made an effort to not smile too widely. "No, it doesn't. What would you do to address this issue?"

"What would _I_ do?" Shion repeated, startled.

"Yes," the elderly priestess nodded. "What would you do?"

"I… Well…"

As the young girl mentally grappled with this problem, Kaede cheerfully nudged the girl along with her on the trail, continuing her earlier walk. They traveled all the way around the west wing of the temple complex and back towards the main doors. Before Kaede had to decide whether to head inside or continue walking and waiting for the girl to come up with a solution, her flareon and the girl's espeon seemed to pick up on something.

"What is it, Fireball?"

"Esper, do you hear something?"

The two evolved eevees fixed their dark eyes on the winding road that lead between the temple and its gates. Within moments, a different kind of eevee was skittering along the paved path, sniffing at the ground and surveying its surroundings. It was bright yellow with a spiny coat and no visible tail to speak of—a jolteon.

"There is no Electric Temple or shrine nearby…is there?" Shion asked.

"No, the nearest is several days away," Kaede replied. "And it is a mistake to assume that every majuu you see on temple grounds is a temple majuu."

The young acolyte seemed rather baffled. "If it isn't an emissary from an Electric Temple, why would it come here?"

_Young people today have no imagination,_ the old priestess sighed.

And then the man came down the path after the jolteon. He was a tall, handsome stranger who bore and eerie resemblance to the blond boy from Fire Country. The man looked somewhat troubled and, upon seeing them, headed in their direction with the jolteon zigzagging ahead of him.

"Good morning, sir," the old priestess greeted with a bow. "Can we help you?"

"I hope so," the man said with a weak smile. "Have you met a Naruto Uzumaki?"

Kaede chuckled. "We have indeed…"

* * *

Naruto was thoroughly dismayed.

"Where'd it all go?!"

He and Lee and all of Lee's pokémon had combed the square from corner to corner and found nothing. All his stuff seemed to have vanished in the night, leaving only a few ruined berries behind. His clothes, his camping gear, his stock of compressed pokémon food, his first aid kit, his other pokémon medicines, his berries, most of his empty pokéballs…it all was gone. The only things he had left were the things he'd kept on his person, like a few pokéballs, his pokédex, and his money purse.

"Perhaps someone collected your items and took them to a lost-and-found," Lee suggested.

"Maybe," Naruto muttered, glum and doubtful.

"Come, there is a lost-and-found at the pokémon center, we will search there!" Lee declared. "If we are not able to find your things, we will perform one hundred jumping-jacks and one hundred…"

Naruto tuned out the fighter's rant in favor of pouting over his bad luck.

_Man, I hate Demon Country! The people are crazy, prehistoric pokémon are out to eat people, and there are no gyms! I'm never coming here again! I don't care how awesome their festivals are supposed to be!_

"…So we shall be sure to find your things, Naruto-kun!" Lee finished.

"Thanks," Naruto distractedly replied.

_Crash!_

Both boys stopped.

"That didn't sound good," Naruto remarked.

"It came from over there!" Lee decided and took off down a side street.

"Hey," Naruto yelped, "wait up!"

They followed the street to a row of small shops with large windows. One of the enormous windows had shattered, leaving shards of glass all over the sidewalk. And the window-breaking vandal was still on the scene, stamping and snorting over its work.

"Another prehistoric pokémon!" Lee gasped.

"A cranidos," Naruto remarked.

The blue and gray, hard-headed lizard started to walk away, but stopped when it came to another intact window. It was startled by its reflection, and then started to pick a fight with its mirror image. Before it destroyed another window, Naruto decided to intervene.

"Shiitake, take it out with _mach punch_!" he commanded as he unleashed his breloom.

The fighting mushroom darted forward and slammed his clawed fist into the prehistoric beast's jaw. The cranidos was knocked sideways and it skidded a few feet from the speedy strike. Shaking it off, the cranidos turned and sprinted at Shiitake in a nearly point-blank _take down_ attack. The breloom had no time to dodge and took the hit straight to the gut.

"Oooh," Naruto winced as Shiitake wheezed and tried to catch his breath. "That was mean."

Before Shiitake could stand up, the cranidos trampled over him and charged at the two boys, forcing them to dive out of the way.

"What an aggressive creature," Lee commented and palmed one of his pokéballs. "Jackie, let us teach this creature about the power of You—"

The cranidos had made a sharp turn as was charging at them again at top speed—

_Thwip!_

A green vine caught the prehistoric lizard's ankle, pulled it off its feet, and dangled the cranidos upside-down. The vine was connected to a hefty venusaur—a female, judging by its giant flower—which calmly crouched a few yards back. And standing by the venusaur was her trainer…

_Dad?!_

Naruto's jaw was somewhere near the ground.

"A cranidos," his father commented. "Hmm…"

"Minato Namikaze," Lee whispered in awe. "The League Champion of Fire Country."

"Hana, _leech seed_," the Champion commanded.

The venusaur dropped the cranidos on its head and then fired a seed at it before the gray and blue lizard could right itself. The seed sprouted into an energy-sapping tangle of vines that spread over the rock monster's skin and drained away its strength. The cranidos tried to brush the parasitic plant off, but already its strength was failing it.

"Amazing," Lee breathed, eyes shining. "Such skill, such trust, such teamwork…"

Naruto gave Gai-sensei's star pupil an odd look. Hana easily outclassed the wild cranidos so it wasn't much of a fight. His dad was just weakening it, probably to catch it. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary or in any way amazing.

"_Sleep powder_."

Hana sprayed a cloud of bluish glittering spores onto the cranidos. The prehistoric lizard sneezed, then yawned, and then drooped. Thoroughly incapacitated, the senior trainer almost casually flicked a yellow and black ultra-ball at the rock monster and in short order captured it.

Lee almost looked like he was going to cry.

His father patted the venusaur's flank as the ultra-ball vanished in a flash of light. "Thank you, Hana."

Shiitake had recovered from the earlier stunning blow and now the breloom looked rather angry. The mushroom stomped his feet and seemed to shout some fighting words at Hana. And then he charged with Naruto barely able to catch his tail and slow him down.

"Wah! Shiitake, knock it off!" Naruto dug in his heels and strained against the fighting plant's great strength. "Stop!"

The Champion gave the steamed mushroom an amused look. "I'm sorry; did we steal your fight?"

The breloom huffed angrily, but stopped trying to launch himself at Hana.

"That's enough from you," Naruto sighed and recalled the testy boxing plant. "You need to learn how to play with others better," he muttered at the capsule.

The street, which had been absolutely deserted mere moments before, was now full of wary faces peeking out of windows and shop doors. Lee was an emotional guy and Naruto expected him to get worked up over nothing, but all of the civilian spectators mirrored Lee's extreme adoration for those who had removed the prehistoric pokémon from their street. Naruto was really creeped out.

"Why don't we go elsewhere and talk?" the Champion cheerfully invited.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded eagerly, and towed Lee by his arm when the dojo trainer failed to follow after them.

As they rounded the corner and headed for the pokémon center, his father removed a plastic shopping back that had been hidden under the fern-like fronds of Hana's back plant and offered it to Naruto. "This is yours, isn't it?"

Naruto pawed through the bag's contents and quickly found that it was most of the stuff that he'd lost when his pack had been destroyed. "Yeah, I was looking for this stuff! Thanks!"

"How did your things end up spread all over a city square?"

"Well…" Naruto awkwardly rubbed at the back of his head. "An aerodactyl tried to eat me, but it just got my backpack instead."

His father didn't seem to have any trouble believing that; he just looked relieved. "Lucky for you it missed its mark."

"Yeah," the boy grimaced. "But now I have to buy a new bag."

"It could be worse," the older blond sighed and pulled a gray device from his pocket.

"…A cell phone?" Naruto guessed as he stared at it.

Cell phones were handy mobile devices, but they really only worked in urban areas so it was cheaper for wandering trainers to depend on pay phones or video phones.

"A satellite phone," his father corrected and handed the device to him. "It'll work anywhere in the world."

"…Okay," Naruto said, puzzled as to why he'd been given the phone.

The League Champion raised an eyebrow. "You know, mothers tend to worry when their sons are suddenly cut off in the middle of a phone call because of an earthquake…"

"Oh." Naruto blinked. "_Oh_, okay."

He tucked the plastic bag of his lost stuff under his arm and laboriously typed in his home number one-handed while he was careful not to drop the phone. With all the insanity that had been going on, he'd forgotten about his call to the professor and how it had been interrupted. It seemed like that had occurred weeks ago instead of mere days ago.

"I would leave the part about how you were almost eaten by an aerodactyl out," his father advised as Naruto held the ringing phone to his ear.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. _And that other time I was almost eaten, and how I got lost in unmapped caves, and how everything was out to get me down there…and pretty much everything else._

The phone connection went through with a click.

_"Hello?"_

"Hi, Mom!"

* * *

When Demon was released, he found himself in a quiet corner of the local pokémon center in the presence of Naruto, the three dojo trainers, Naruto's sire, and some of Naruto's sire's pokémon. He recognized Kyuubi, Hana, Ryuu, and Kage, but the jolteon was new. The freshly-minted ninetales looked away from the group, not wanting to see the same awed and admiring stares that had been heaped upon him since last night. At the temple many had even bowed before him.

"And you say that you did this on accident?" Naruto's sire asked.

"I think he did it on accident," Naruto replied. "He stepped on the _fire stone_ or something and didn't seem to notice until it was pointed out to him that he'd evolved."

"Interesting," the older human remarked.

_:Congratulations on evolving!:_ Ryuu said cheerfully.

_:He looks funny,:_ the jolteon remarked. _:Kyuubi, why is he a different color from you?:_

Demon glowered at the spiky yellow creature.

_ :Because he was born a different color, Senkou,:_ Kyuubi replied.

_:So when that funny fish evolves, it'll still be a funny color?:_ Senkou asked.

_:Yes.:_ The female ninetales scrutinized him for several minutes, leaving Demon feeling rather annoyed. _:Hmm…:_

_ :What?: _Demon snapped.

_:You were uniquely cute before,:_ Kyuubi said. _:And now I must say…that you are uniquely handsome.:_

Demon flinched. _Eh?!_

_:Ooh, you like him?:_ Senkou squealed. _:Are you going to mate with him? Huh? Huh?:_

Demon gaped at the jolteon. _What?!_

_:Very mature,:_ Kage cawed, ruffling his dark feathers. _:And you wonder why Uzu-chan refuses to go for a romp in the bushes with you…:_

_:If I were looking for a mate then I would consider pursuing him,:_ Kyuubi said. _:But I'm not looking for a mate.:_

The female ninetales laid her head on her human's knee and sighed blissfully when Naruto's sire distractedly scratched behind her ear as he listen to Naruto boast about how he captured an aerodactyl.

_Um…_ Demon watched Kyuubi's behavior uneasily. _She's not in love with her human…is she?_

_ :If you're thinking what I think you're thinking,:_ Senkou said, suddenly at Demon's side and whispering to him behind a paw, _:then the answer is "yes"!:_

Demon just stared at the jolteon.

_:Try to ignore him,:_ Hana advised. _:We all do.:_

Before anything could get stranger or more awkward, an old lady with a flareon walked into the center. From her clothes it was clear to see that she was from the Fire Temple. She spoke briefly with one of the attendants at the counter before heading directly towards their group of humans and pokémon.

"—and then…" Naruto paused when he saw the old lady approaching. "Hi, Kaede-baa-chan!"

"You're calling a priestess 'granny'?" Tenten muttered quietly.

"Hello Naruto," the old woman smiled and bowed. "On behalf of the Fire Temple, we thank you and your friends for your help in defending our city."

"Uh…you're welcome!" the boy said with an embarrassed grin.

The old lady chuckled. "And also on behalf of the Fire Temple, we wish to ask a favor of you…"

Demon narrowed his red eyes. _Now what is this about?_


	14. Part XIV

**Gold and Silver**

_Part XIV_

The air was heavy and tense as the sun began to set. A motley collection of grass, water, and fire-type monsters lay scattered across the field of battle along with a smattering of exceptionally monstrous monsters. Only two creatures stood, still capable of continuing the fight: a vicious bat-winged lizard, and a nine-tailed fox.

Both combatants were clearly tired as they squared off against each other. They locked eyes in an intense stare down. And then, at some invisible signal, they both moved.

The flying creature soared low. The fox jumped high. They flew past each other…and the winged rock-lizard crashed into the dirt, skidding several yards before coming to a stop, while the fox landed gracefully.

And the crowd exploded into loud cheers and applause that lasted a solid ten minutes.

_"And so the battle was won,"_ the narrator announced over the speakers when the wild cheers died down slightly. _"Gingitsune defeated the Winged Demon King and the remaining demons fled back down the Gateway."_

_ :Don't like this game,:_ the "Winged Demon King" muttered into the dirt.

_:Just keep playing dead,:_ "Gingitsune" grumbled. _:My death scene is coming up next.:_

_"The brave Gingitsune drummed his tails upon the ground, calling for an earthquake,"_ the narrator continued. _"Though weary, Kaminami and Kamihana gathered their strength and unleashed twin __**earthquakes**__ that sealed the Gateway closed and locked the demons away."_

"Gingitsune" thumped his tails on the dirt and the very ancient meganium ("Kamihana") and elderly empoleon ("Kaminami") feebly stomped on the ground, faking _earthquake_ very unconvincingly, but still the crowd cheered it.

_"The danger was past and all the villagers celebrated,"_ the narrator said as various "villagers" hefted their scythes and pitchforks in victory as they danced around like fools. _"But the price of their victory was steep…"_

The audience fell silent as "Gingitsune" wavered and collapsed to the ground like a puppet with cut strings.

_"The heroic Gingitsune fell and breathed his last breath. The villagers were grief-stricken and remorseful over the way that they had treated him in life. They gave him a grand funeral in the Fire Village and built a shrine upon his grave. From that moment on into eternity, he was called 'Gingitsune' and the name of 'Youma no Kitsune' was forgotten."_

The "villagers" awkwardly loaded "Gingitsune" onto a stretcher and carried the silver-furred fox out of the audience's view.

_"Kamihana and Kaminami survived, but were never the same again. They lived out the rest of their lives quietly in the Grass and Water Villages, where they had many children until their time to join Gingitsune in the afterlife came,"_ the narrator said. _"And every year after, in the height of summer, a festival was held in remembrance of the event and in honor of those who died. …And that is the history of the Summer Victory Festival."_

The crowd stood to give a standing ovation. While all the people seated in the temporary bleachers clapped and cheered, the "Winged Demon King" slithered off the "battlefield" along with the other "demons"—zubats and golbats mostly, with horns glued on them. While the "surviving" monsters bowed with the "villagers" to the crowd, "Gingitsune" and "Furuhi" (not an actual charizard, just a charmeleon with fake wings strapped on it) sat backstage.

_:I'm glad that's over,:_ Demon muttered around a yawn.

_:Not fun game,:_ Ginsu grumbled and rubbed at his chin.

_:We probably won't play it again,:_ Demon said. _And if we do, I'm not playing._

The parade hadn't been _too_ awful bad. All Demon had to do was sit on a fire-themed float with all the vulpix and a few other fire pokémon and look serious while it was dragged around the city. The worst part had been the noise of the cheers and the confetti that tickled his nose and risked getting into his eyes.

Participating in the play was much worse. Demon didn't care much for acting, and teaching Ginsu his part was horrible. The aerodactyl kept getting too serious in their mock fight when they practiced it and he disliked losing, even if it was just for pretend. And then they had to work with a cast mainly made up of temple pokémon that worshipped the ground that Demon walked on (on the first day of practice, they did it literally).

But it would soon be over. There would be a feast and fireworks and then the festival would end. And then they would leave Demon Country behind (hopefully forever) in the morning.

_:A masterful performance,:_ old lady Kaede's flareon—Fireball—said to them. _:I don't think I've ever heard the audience cheer so loudly or so long.:_

Even now the crowd was still cheering and clapping—it was easy to hear "backstage" as it was portioned off by a string of bed sheets. The play was usually hosted in the city square, but since that had been trashed a field outside of the city had been selected as a replacement. The temporary bleachers were packed to overflowing, and people had climbed all the nearby trees.

_:Thank you for your help,:_ Fireball said to Demon. _:The people were very happy to have a "real" Gingitsune this year, especially after all that's happened.:_

_ :Whatever,:_ Demon huffed. _:I'm just glad it's over.:_

Naruto pushed his way backstage with a blinding grin on his whiskered face.

"You did great, guys! Both of you." He patted Ginsu's nose and petted the silky tuft of fur on Demon's head. "Thank you."

Demon sighed and closed his eyes as the cheering still filled the air. _You're welcome, silly boy…_

* * *

Rain Country was so named because it always rained there. Most days it just drizzled, and some days it poured like nowhere else in the world. Sunshine was rare and many citizens mistook it for a miracle.

It rained now as Nagato peered out of a small, barred window. He watched the water dribble down the window glass without really seeing it. He'd retreated deep inside his own mind as he usually did. With his poor physical condition, there was no physical way that he could escape the rain.

As a boy he'd always been frail, but when he'd hit his early twenties his health had taken a nosedive. His body grew weak and sickly and then he'd been caught in a chemical spill that had badly burned his hands and feet. Now he was confined to a mechanical walker with tubes going everywhere and experimental medical rods (a fusion of ancient acupuncture and more modern medicines) coming out of his skeletal back.

_What a cruel world this is,_ he thought darkly. _Inequality, hatred, suffering, poverty, disease… I will change it._

The door to his dark, secluded room slid open and Yahiko, his old childhood friend, quietly entered. They'd grown up in the orphanage together, along with Konan, and were dedicated to Nagato's vision. The three of them would do what was necessary, even if it seemed evil, to see it done.

"One of Konan's people seems to have found something," Yahiko told him. "Something significant."

"Oh?" Nagato focused and laboriously turned the multi-legged walking machine around to face his orange-haired friend. "What is it? Another bogus lead on Mew? Or Celebi?"

"No," Yahiko shook his head. "Something from the black market."

"The black market?" There was only one thing that Nagato wanted that could possibly be on the black market. "Another bogus Mewtwo DNA sample? We've bought seven of those and two turned out to be vials of water."

"This one looks to be promising," Yahiko argued. "The research notes this package came with look legitimate. And since we've been disappointed so many times before, I had our scientists already start work on it. There was DNA in the vial, and the embryo that has developed looks _very _promising."

"You're sure it's not a deformed abra like that last '_very_ promising' black market buy?" Nagato dubiously asked his heavily pierced friend.

"I'm sure," the other man said. "I wouldn't have come to tell you about it otherwise."

Nagato thoughtfully tilted his head, shifting his limp red hair out of his eyes. "…How long?"

"The scientists estimate six months at the soonest," Yahiko replied. "It could take longer, but there is enough DNA to allow for several failures without worry. I asked them if it could be done faster, but there is increased risk of deformity and stillbirth if the process is accelerated too much."

"I see…" Nagato settled back in his chair. "That could speed up our plans a bit. _If_ this isn't another forgery. Until this is certain, proceed as originally planned."

Yahiko bowed and left the room.

_The doctors give me ten years,_ Nagato thought as he turned back to the small window. _Ten years… That should be quite enough, I think._

_ Quite enough to change the world…_

* * *

Naruto finished his cereal and grabbed a muffin as he left the small cafeteria area of the pokémon center. The party had been great, almost as good as advertised, and he'd allowed himself to sleep in, so he was a few hours behind what he'd planned on. He'd packed up his new backpack with all of his things and was ready to hit the road out of Demon Country.

His father had left the previous evening. He'd stayed long enough to watch the play, but left right after, saying something about wanting to catch some pokémon migration going on in Wave Country. It hadn't been fun to say good-bye. His dad had helped him give Ginsu a crash-course in acting and was probably the only reason that his pokémon had been ready for the play in time.

But there was always next time.

Lee, Tenten, and Neji would be staying for a while. The three temples had asked for help in reviving some of their older traditions: training and battling pokémon. While Naruto had declined as politely as he knew how, the three dojo trainers had volunteered their help (Lee had almost been crying as he had agreed to help).

So Naruto was hitting the road alone. It was something that he was used to. But he kind of wished that he would be having some company.

_Maybe I should try for another badge…get my total up to seven,_ he mused as he headed down to the ground floor. _That old pervert said that both his pals were gym leaders, and I've already fought Tsunade, so…maybe I should look up this Orochimaru guy…_

Before Naruto left the center, he decided to give the computers one last try. Every day he'd logged on to see if he could reach Professor Sarutobi's lab, and every day so far he'd been disappointed. Would today be different?

It would.

"Yes!" Naruto grinned as he reached his pokémon account. "Here we go…"

He swapped Ginsu for Bolt and immediately the pikachu out to see if he was still itchy.

"Hey Bolt, is your pokérus rash still itchy?"

The pikachu shook his head.

"Great!" Naruto grinned and urged the electric mouse up onto his shoulder. "Let's go! I need to catch you up on some stuff…"


End file.
